News

State Supreme Court rejects competing redistricting appeals

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:10 p.m. to reflect the N.C. Supreme Court’s response to multiple appeals. The N.C. Supreme Court is refusing to insert itself back into the state’s legal dispute over legislative and congressional redistricting at this time. A series of court orders issued about 10 p.m. Wednesday denied requests for...

CJ Staff
News

Three-judge panel upholds new N.C. legislative maps, redraws congressional map

A bipartisan unanimous three-judge panel has upheld newly drawn maps for North Carolina’s legislative elections. But the same panel has rejected a revised map for congressional elections. In place of a remedial congressional map drawn by the Republican-led General Assembly, the judges substituted their own map for the 2022 congressional elections. A panel of three...

CJ Staff
News

Wake County School Board votes to end masks in class March 7 

The Wake County Public School Board voted for making masks recommended but not required for athletics immediately. The vote includes extracurricular activities, ending masks requirements on Friday, Feb. 25, and for classes starting March 7. The school board made the decision during a special Board of Education meeting on Feb. 22, despite passionate objections from...

Theresa Opeka
News

Challengers of now-repealed Mecklenburg judges’ districts want Supreme Court review

Challengers of a now-repealed state law creating judicial districts in Mecklenburg County are taking their case to the state Supreme Court. They have requested a temporary stay and a “writ of supersedeas” from the state’s high court. Those measures would block a unanimous Feb. 1 ruling from a panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals....

CJ Staff
News

Legislators urge redistricting panel to avoid ‘beauty contest’ over competing plans

State lawmakers defending their latest election maps are urging a three-judge panel to avoid conducting a “beauty contest” over competing plans. That language appears in a document filed Monday in the legal case over N.C. congressional and legislative maps. The panel of Superior Court judges must decide by noon Wednesday whether to uphold redrawn maps...

CJ Staff

Opinion

Elections

News

Trump nominates Bishop to be deputy director for budget at OMB

"Dan has been a tireless fighter for our MAGA Movement in the House of Representatives on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees," Trump said in a press release issued Tuesday night. "Dan will implement my cost-cutting and deregulatory agenda across all Agencies, and root out the Weaponized Deep State."

Theresa Opeka
News

Democrats want federal court to address GOP challenge of 60,000 NC ballots

The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Friday to ensure challenges of 60,000 ballots in the state's latest election are addressed in federal court. Republicans filed the challenges with the State Board of Elections. The challenges could affect the outcome of the state Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Jefferson Griffin, along with a handful of state legislative contests.

CJ Staff
News

Griffin asks Appeals Court to order decision on election protests by Tuesday

Republican North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin is turning to North Carolina’s second-highest court for an order that would force state election officials to make a final decision about Griffin’s election protests Tuesday. The State Board of Elections had planned to hear oral arguments about the protests the following day, according to a document Griffin filed Friday with the state Court of Appeals.

CJ Staff

Videos

Video

The Debrief: Remaining Covid Lawsuits + Sam Hayes Interview

This week on The Debrief, Mitch Kokai and Donna King discuss the remaining covid lawsuits and other court cases in North Carolina. Plus, North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes sat down with Carolina Journal’s Theresa Opeka to talk about his first year in office, including his accomplishments and what’s on the...

Culture

Civil Society

Opinion

For healthy civil society, politics needs to stay in its lane

Political and cultural causes are important. They motivate us to make the world around us better and hone our sense of justice. Also, the excitement of fighting the good fight can be, for lack of a better word, fun. But everything has its time and place. And even if we think a particular political issue...

David Larson
Opinion

Flashback: North Carolina’s Easter Monday tradition forged on the baseball diamond

On Good Friday state offices will be closed in North Carolina for Holy Week, along with 10 other states. However, that has not always been the case in North Carolina. The Monday after Easter — rather than Good Friday — was a legal holiday in North Carolina for 52 years, and for many years before...

Dallas Woodhouse