A free, impartial and honest judicial branch is a cornerstone of our system of government. And today, that branch is under assault in North Carolina.
Starting almost a decade ago, and continuing unabated until today, well-funded state and national far-right interest groups have carried out a well-organized campaign to take over North Carolina’s state courts. Their aim is to install rigidly partisan ideologues on the bench who will implement a radical-right political agenda from the bench. Until now, they have had a great deal of success in accomplishing this.
It stops now.
Today, we're announcing the
Carolina Forward Justice Slate
The Carolina Forward Justice Slate
Our courts are under attack.
North Carolina’s judiciary has rarely been under the pressure it is today.
North Carolina Republicans have been dead-set on seizing partisan control of the state court system for many years. They have tried everything from rigging judicial voting districts to canceling party primaries in order to produce desired candidates. In 2020, following unprecedented national dark money campaigns in their favor, Republicans succeeded in winning three state supreme court seats.
Since being elected, there has been a marked and obvious shift towards bare-knuckled partisan power on the state supreme court. Republican Justice Phil Berger Jr., the son of Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, in an outrageous break with both accepted norms and the code of judicial conduct, has refused to recuse himself on cases involving his own father. Republican Justice Tamara Barringer has refused to recuse on cases involving laws she herself voted for when a state senator (the very definition of bias). And Chief Justice Paul Newby, a rigid partisan warrior who doesn’t mind dodging the rules when they apply to him, has acted as the chief recruiter to attract Republican activist candidates into judges’ races all around North Carolina.
What stands between our state and “no-holds-barred” partisan gerrymandering is just 1 seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The state supreme court’s recent ruling that the North Carolina constitution prohibits extreme partisan gerrymandering forced the Republican legislature to redesign election districts that – while still not fair – were less aggressively gerrymandered than before.
The far-right is now campaigning hard to take over our courts. It’s up to us to defend them.
All North Carolinians, of any political stripe, who believe in honesty, integrity, impartiality and the rule of law have a stake in protecting our state’s courts from partisan warfare.
