Supreme Politics
My lawyer and judge friends may rule me out of order, but I believe Democratic candidates for the state Supreme Court should tell voters where they stand on fundamental constitutional issues.
They should say that women have a constitutional right to abortion, that gerrymandering and voter suppression are unconstitutional, and that the legislature hasn’t met its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public schools.
I know the objection: Supreme Court justices should be impartial, not political.
But that battle is lost. The court has become the Supine Court, bedfellows of the Republican Party.
The new Republican court is reconsidering a gerrymandering decision already made by the previous court. That court concluded Republicans’ congressional and legislative maps “are unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt under the free elections clause, the equal protection clause, the free speech clause, and the freedom of assembly clause of the North Carolina Constitution.”
The new court no doubt will rubber-stamp whatever the legislature does.
Democrats let this happen. They tried to do the right thing: pledge to be neutral and impartial arbiters.
One Democratic candidate for the court pledged not to wear a Republican or Democratic hat. Another promised to approach every case with a blank legal pad.
But that left many voters not knowing where the candidates stood on fundamental issues of fairness and freedom.
That in turn led to Democrats losing three Supreme Court races in 2020 and 2022 – and losing their majority on the court.
If Democrats want to ever regain a majority on the court, they have to hold their two current seats. The one Mike Morgan is vacating will be up for election next year, and Governor Roy Cooper will appoint his replacement. In 2026, Democrats have to hold Anita Earls’s seat.
Three Republican justices will be up for election in 2028. That will be Democrats’ first chance to regain the majority.
In Wisconsin this year, Janet Protasiewicz flipped the Supreme Court to a 4-3 Democratic majority.
She “spoke openly during her campaign about her support for abortion rights and opposition to what she called ‘rigged’ maps that have given Republicans large majorities in the state legislature. Political strategists said her blunt style helped her win even as court observers fretted that she was making judges look like politicians instead of evenhanded referees.”
In North Carolina, Republicans already have made the justices partisans, not referees. Democrats should take off the gloves, take up the fight for fairness and take back the court.
Supreme Politics
My lawyer and judge friends may rule me out of order, but I believe Democratic candidates for the state Supreme Court should tell voters where they stand on fundamental constitutional issues.
They should say that women have a constitutional right to abortion, that gerrymandering and voter suppression are unconstitutional, and that the legislature hasn’t met its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public schools.
I know the objection: Supreme Court justices should be impartial, not political.
But that battle is lost. The court has become the Supine Court, bedfellows of the Republican Party.
The new Republican court is reconsidering a gerrymandering decision already made by the previous court. That court concluded Republicans’ congressional and legislative maps “are unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt under the free elections clause, the equal protection clause, the free speech clause, and the freedom of assembly clause of the North Carolina Constitution.”
The new court no doubt will rubber-stamp whatever the legislature does.
Democrats let this happen. They tried to do the right thing: pledge to be neutral and impartial arbiters.
One Democratic candidate for the court pledged not to wear a Republican or Democratic hat. Another promised to approach every case with a blank legal pad.
But that left many voters not knowing where the candidates stood on fundamental issues of fairness and freedom.
That in turn led to Democrats losing three Supreme Court races in 2020 and 2022 – and losing their majority on the court.
If Democrats want to ever regain a majority on the court, they have to hold their two current seats. The one Mike Morgan is vacating will be up for election next year, and Governor Roy Cooper will appoint his replacement. In 2026, Democrats have to hold Anita Earls’s seat.
Three Republican justices will be up for election in 2028. That will be Democrats’ first chance to regain the majority.
In Wisconsin this year, Janet Protasiewicz flipped the Supreme Court to a 4-3 Democratic majority.
She “spoke openly during her campaign about her support for abortion rights and opposition to what she called ‘rigged’ maps that have given Republicans large majorities in the state legislature. Political strategists said her blunt style helped her win even as court observers fretted that she was making judges look like politicians instead of evenhanded referees.”
In North Carolina, Republicans already have made the justices partisans, not referees. Democrats should take off the gloves, take up the fight for fairness and take back the court.