RALEIGH -- A judge Friday ruled in a lawsuit that challenges a state's teacher tenure law that would order each school district to give the best 25% of its teachers four-year contracts. The teachers would get pay raises totaling $5,000 but forfeit their tenure rights. From the bench, Friday, State Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled the law unconstitutional:

Judge Hobgood said, "With respect to retroactive abolishment of vested career status rights, the General Assembly's action clearly violates the contract clause of the United States Constitution."

It's the first ruling in a legal battle over whether public school teachers can keep job protections they've had for generations.