North Carolina Supreme Court's New GOP Majority Calls 'Do Over' On Past Voting Rights Rulings GOP Lost
Special guest Billy Corriher walks us through this blatant power grab.
North Carolina had made significant progress over the past few years in voting rights and racial justice, but unfortunately, the 2022 midterm results have jeopardized those gains. Republicans flipped the North Carolina Supreme Court, and they're not bothering making nice about any "independent judiciary." They're ready and willing to operate like an extension of the Republican-controlled legislature.
First on the docket: "Reconsidering" cases the former Democratic-controlled Supreme Court already ruled on less than two months ago. Who needs new arguments (or even a legal rationale) when you have a shiny new Republican judicial majority?
Joshua Douglas , a professor and expert on state constitutions at the University of Kentucky College of Law, told the New York Times, “Quite literally the only thing that changed is the court’s composition. The whole thing simply smells of partisanship.”
The previous Supreme Court said goodbye to jacked-up gerrymanders of State Senate districts and Jim Crow-style voting identification requirements, but the Republican justices will happily say hello.
I'm not unfairly labeling these judges "Republicans," either. North Carolina judicial candidates run with partisan affiliations, and the campaigns have become as expensive and contentious as a statewide race for governor or Senate. The new Republican justices were elected with a clear agenda and they're sparing no time enacting it.
Walking us through this blatant power grab is law-talker Billy Corriher with the People's Parity Project. He's the author of Usurpers: How Voters Stopped the GOP Takeover of North Carolina's Courts, which you should go read. His work has been published in Newsweek , the L.A. Times , ThinkProgress, The Hill, Huff Post, and more.
Corriher explains how Republicans have exploited partisan judicial elections to tilt the courts in their favor, and they aren't stopping there. Don't worry. He has solutions to fight them.
Watch our pre-recorded interview today at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET.
[ New York Times ]
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Republicans don't believe in law when it doesn't go their way, they lie about precedent and "originalism" just like the current Trumpist SCOTUS
It's almost like one of our only 2 parties doesn't like any competition. Or care for democracy in the least.