When I returned home to North Carolina from the nation’s capital in 1989 and subsequently registered to vote, I opted not to join a political party. Although my conservative views were already well-established — and publicly on display in the syndicated newspaper column I’d created three years earlier — I considered it inappropriate for a...
Supreme Court Judicial Candidate Lucy Inman said in a recent interview when it comes to her rulings on the bench, she would “stand up for what is right.” In other words, her opinion will be the deciding factor, not the law. This alarming, bold admission shows judicial activism is becoming an accepted practice, and maybe...
The N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling against challengers of a repealed law affecting Mecklenburg County judges. The law would have converted countywide District Court judicial elections into district races. The General Assembly repealed the districting plan in 2020, rendering the legal challenge moot, according to the Appeals Court. The unanimous three-judge panel...
On Saturday night, Jennifer Clapton stood in a brightly lit bowling alley, watching her autistic, 22-year-old son laugh. He threw ball after ball down the shining, wooden lane, shouting glee each time he hit the pins. It was the last night he would bowl. For awhile, anyway. Clapton fought tears. In Roanoke Rapids, a struggling...
The wisest course is to craft political institutions and make procedural rules as if you don’t know which party will be on top in the future — because you really don't.
A special legislative committee studying constitutional changes to the way North Carolina selects judges would be wise to leave things alone. That’s the view of a national expert on judicial selection methods who spoke at a Tuesday teleconference for reporters and judicial analysts. Chris Bonneau says the system North Carolina and a number of other...
North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin isn’t happy with the way state judges get on the bench. And he’d like voters to decide if they agree with him. At his annual address to the N.C. Bar Association’s annual convention, given Saturday morning in Asheville, Martin called for a constitutional amendment changing the process for picking...
(UPDATED, 4:05 p.m. Wednesday. The House passed the bill, 65-51. After the vote, Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, issued a statement including the following: “North Carolina already identifies party affiliation in other judicial elections, so it is not a new approach to provide local voters this information. This informed elections process of providing party identification is...
Several state Supreme Court justices showed skepticism during a Wednesday hearing over the constitutionality of a recent law establishing “retention” elections for appellate court judges. While the state’s solicitor general urged the justices to reverse a lower court ruling and allow the retention law to take effect, the plaintiffs’ attorney told the high court that...
A three-judge Superior Court panel has ruled that the state’s fledgling judicial retention system for N.C. Supreme Court justices is unconstitutional. The ruling immediately affects this year’s race by Associate Justice Robert Edmunds, who is seeking another term in the state’s highest court. The judicial retention law, passed by the General Assembly in 2015, allows...
John Hood on push for justice to recuse himself from redistricting; Vikram Rao on fracking research; Mike Walden on recession in N.C.; Jim Horne, Scott Saylor & legislators on possible sale of N.C. Railroad; Jeanette Doran on ruling against Durham vendor
