The House has completed action on a constitutional amendment creating a nonpartisan commission to nominate judges to fill judicial vacancies on merit. The vote came over objections from the chamber’s top Democrat that it was a ploy to expand the Supreme Court, and pack it with Republicans.
Senate Bill 814, the Judicial Vacancy Sunshine Act, now goes before voters in the Nov. 6 general election. The House voted, 73-45, to pass it Thursday, June 28, rejecting three Democratic amendments in the process. The Senate passed the measure, 34-13, Monday.
The bill would create a nonpartisan commission at the local and state levels. Members would be appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the governor, and General Assembly to evaluate and rate nominees on their professional experience and qualifications.
The General Assembly would review qualifications of the nominees, and forward at least two recommendations to the governor. The appointee would have to stand for election within two years to retain the seat.
“It’s become clear to me that this bill is nothing but a court-packing scheme,” said House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake.
Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, chairman of the House Elections and Ethics Law Committee, shot back, saying to view the bill as anything other than an attempt to find the best judicial candidates is wrong.
North Carolina residents strongly support retaining the right to elect judges, while lawmakers from both sides have debated for years whether to keep an electoral system, or establish a system of selecting judges by merit, he said.
“The folks that used to support merit selection now don’t,” Lewis said, referring to Democrats. He said some Democratic activist groups are going so far as distributing political material falsely claiming the GOP is trying to eradicate the public’s right to vote for judges in an attempt to scuttle S.B. 814.
Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, repeated his previous day’s defense that the constitutional amendment eliminates political abuses of the process by the governor and retiring judges to appoint hand-picked successors. He said many sitting judges owe their appointments to that manipulation.
Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, a former district court chief judge, said she was one of those judges appointed by a governor to a vacant seat. She refuted the contention the process is secret, saying the vacancy and every step of the selection process were covered in the local newspaper, and the local bar association announced when it would decide its recommendations.
Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, said a local nominating commission is a feeble attempt at a solution.
“It is past time this state go to true merit selection of its judges,” Richardson said. “We’re going to look like fools trying to fix this thing when it can’t be fixed.” Part of the problem, he said, is holding judicial elections on a partisan basis. That is a contradiction of judges’ judicial oaths to be impartial, he claimed.
Rep. Robert Reives, D-Lee, offered an amendment to have the local merit-selection commission evaluate publicly recommended candidates in an open forum, and send final nominees directly to the governor, cutting the General Assembly out of the process. That would be a more transparent process than sending the nominations to the legislature, he said.
Burr said the local commission could hold public hearings under the amendment, and the legislative hearings would offer a second layer of public vetting.
Reives’ amendment failed, as did amendments by Jackson to require all appointees to run in the next election after taking office, and a slimmer version requiring only appointees to newly created judgeships to run in the next election.
Immediate elections would square with existing law, Jackson said. The constitutional amendment gives appointed judges two years before they have to stand for election.
Burr said that would not provide enough time for an attorney to close a private practice and get settled into a judicial role before having to run for election, perhaps within a few months after being seated.
Reives, an attorney, said he would prefer an immediate election because it would instill more certainty in knowing whether the judicial position would be short-term or long-term.
Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, also an attorney, said she would not close down her legal practice to become a judge without the certainty of knowing she would hold the job for at least two years. Someone willing to take the chance of jumping from attorney to a 60-day appointed judgeship might not be the best qualified person for the job, she said.
The House also approved Senate Bill 75, a constitutional amendment lowering the ceiling on the personal income tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent, on a 73-45 vote. The measure now goes back to the Senate for concurrence because the original Senate-passed bill lowered the cap even further, to 5.5 percent.
“When we put limits on the income tax it shifts the tax burden to sales taxes, user fees, property taxes, and we know that those are the taxes that tend to have the heaviest burden on hard-working North Carolinians,” said Rep. Greg Meyer, D-Orange.
“Some of this is true,” and income tax deductions and credits can be eliminated if the General Assembly needs to find money in tight times, said Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford. “It’s a poor substitute for what we should have done,” which was to implement a Taxpayer Bill of Rights-style constitutional amendment limiting how much money can be appropriated from year to year. Still, he said, he was voting for the constitutional amendment to protect taxpayers from high income tax rates.
Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash, said Republicans’ pro-growth economic policies have made the state flush with cash, have pumped up reserve funds, and not only eliminated a $2.8 billion unemployment insurance debt to the federal government, but boosted it to a $4 billion account. The state is well positioned to withstand an economic downturn or natural disaster, and does not need to impose high taxes on its people, he said.
The Senate’s afternoon calendar had two veto overrides scheduled: House Bill 382, an insurance omnibus insurance bill, and House Bill 717, Judicial Elections Changes.
Also on the Senate calendar was House Bill 1092, a constitutional amendment requiring a photo ID to vote.