{"id":214,"date":"2025-12-16T15:47:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/?page_id=214"},"modified":"2025-12-16T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:49:16","slug":"judicial-independence-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/?page_id=214","title":{"rendered":"Judicial Independence Under Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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  • The legislature overrode Gov. Cooper\u2019s veto to make North Carolina the first state in decades to force judges to declare a political party affiliation to seek election. Paul Newby, then an Associate Justice, named himself the \u201cquarterback\u201d of recruiting judicial candidates to be part of his right-wing \u201cteam\u201d on the state Supreme Court.<\/span>

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  • Though Newby won his Chief Justice seat by just 401 votes \u2013 out of 5.4 million cast \u2013 he\u2019s taken that razor-thin victory as a mandate to turn the state\u2019s court system into one in which partisanship increasingly colors hiring, appointments, and judgment.<\/span>

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  • Newby fired the respected head of the Judicial Standards Commission, which reviews and investigates complaints of misconduct made against judges and revised ethics guidance to loosen restrictions on political activity by judges. The legislature also passed legislation giving themselves and Newby the ability to stack commission with political allies. Now the new commission is stifling dissent and targeted judges that don\u2019t toe the line. <\/span>

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  • Newby\u2019s \u201cteam\u201d of justices took the highly unusual step of revisiting and overturning previously decided cases they didn\u2019t like, including reversing a ruling that limited gerrymandering. The court allowed the legislature to redraw district boundaries for both Congress and the General Assembly to favor their chosen candidates.<\/span>

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  • Justice Phil Berger Jr., a Newby ally, has refused to recuse himself from cases involving his father, one of the state\u2019s most powerful politicians. This includes cases challenging gerrymandered legislative maps \u2013 the key to his hold on power.<\/span><\/li>
  • The legislature gave themselves and Newby the power to appoint the judges who review the constitutionality of the laws they pass, assuring favorable rulings.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>

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    • Until stopped by a federal court, Newby attempted to overturn a Supreme Court election to seat a political ally \u2013 Jefferson Griffin \u2013 by tossing out thousands of legitimate ballots, including from North Carolinians serving in the military.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The legislature overrode Gov. Cooper\u2019s veto to make North Carolina the first state in decades to force judges to declare a political party affiliation to seek election. Paul Newby, then an Associate Justice, named himself the \u201cquarterback\u201d of recruiting judicial candidates to be part of his right-wing \u201cteam\u201d on the state Supreme Court. Though Newby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-214","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faircourtsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}