N.C. journalists file emergency appeal to get court access

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GRAHAM — Three newspapers have asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to order courts in a county where rally-goers were pepper sprayed and arrested to stop barring reporters from court proceedings.

Court staff in Alamance County have said limiting entry to defendants, victims and their attorneys was due to COVID-19, but attorneys for The News & Observer, Triad City Beat and Alamance News said in their filing Thursday that “dispensing justice behind closed doors” was unconstitutional and “undermines public trust in the judicial process,” The New & Observer reported.