Ruling on Campus Police

North Carolina's highest court says the police working at religious college campuses in the state hold real authority - overturning a lower court ruling that said giving campus police power at religious institutions amounted to an illegal entanglement of government and religion. A North Carolina state law called the Campus Police Act allowed the state's attorney general to give authority to campus-police departments at private schools. The NC Supreme Court decision stemmed from a drunken-driving arrest at Davidson College (which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, USA). When a campus officer arrested Julie Anne Yencer on charges of drunken and reckless driving, she pleaded guilty, but wanted the charges dismissed, based on the idea that the Davidson police officer did not have authority and that the Campus Police Act was unconstitutional.