North Carolina can keep its Bill of Rights

Appeals court reaffirms claim

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that North Carolina's original draft copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights, stolen during the Civil War, rightfully belongs to the Tar Heel state.

In a largely technical ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., affirmed an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle that the document belongs to North Carolina. Other litigation continues in state court in North Carolina and a federal court in Connecticut over whether one former owner has any legal right to the document.

North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights was returned in August 2005 after two years of legal wrangling. Authorities think the document was stolen by a Union soldier from the state Capitol when Gen. William T. Sherman's Army occupied Raleigh. In 2000, Connecticut antiques dealer Wayne Pratt, with the help of Bob Matthews, a Connecticut developer, purchased the document from the soldiers' relatives for $200,000. But in 2003, a federal agent, posing as a potential buyer, seized the document as contraband.

Pratt and Matthews contended that they had been cheated out of a potential $30 million from the sale. Pratt has since given up any claim on the document, but Matthews continues with his litigation.

"This is good news for the people of North Carolina," said Attorney General Roy Cooper in a prepared statement Thursday. "We've fought hard to bring our copy of the Bill of Rights home where it belongs, and we'll continue to fight off challenges that would seek to take this important symbol and historic treasure away from us again."

Cooper, Gov. Mike Easley, and U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney worked together to return the document to North Carolina.