Ideological purity over judicial independence at the appellate courts in North Carolina

Chief Justice Paul Newby once complained about the raw political power he's now exercising

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina Paul Newby is a bad faith actor who is damaging both the reputation and role of the court. Courts used to be part of the checks and balance system, holding other branches of the government accountable. Newby is making the Supreme Court an arm of the GOP political machine to ensure minority rule in the state and strict adherence to conservative dogma. The only thing he’s checking is the ideological purity of other judges and employees of the court system to make sure he can rubber stamp GOP legislation coming down the pike. As WRAL says, he’s turning our court system into a “political playground.”

This week, Newby broke with tradition and replaced the chief judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals with a more compliant judge. Judge Donna Stroud had been the chief judge and longest serving member of the court. Newby replaced her with Judge Chris Dillon.

While both are Republicans, Stroud irked more conservative members of the court and some Republican legislators. She then defeated their chosen candidate in a primary in 2022. Stroud’s main sin appears to be judicial independence. Newby wants a chief who will toe the party line.

Tradition holds that the chief judge is the longest serving member of the Court of Appeals. Stroud was appointed to her position by former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, a Democrat. Newby’s appointment of Dillon broke with the tradition to settle a political score.

And here’s the hypocrisy part. When Governor Roy Cooper appoint Cheri Beasley the first African American woman to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Newby whined that he should have gotten the appointment because he was the longest serving member. He even claimed it was tradition, when, in fact, Republican Governer Jim Martin had appointed fellow Republican Rhoda Billings to the position despite Billings having served on the court for less than a year. Newby loudly complained about Cooper putting “raw partisan politics over a non-partisan judiciary.” Now, he’s the one politicizing the court.

A few months later, Newby blasted all of his fellow justices as “AOCs on the Supreme Court.” He was referring to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and implying that the court had shifted too far to the left. He has embraced exactly the raw partisan politics he claimed to abhor.

Since he took over as Chief Justice, Newby has gone about destroying the traditions of the court that he said he held sacred back in 2019. He refused to recognize precedents set by the previous court, overturning decisions that had recently been passed. In controversial decisions, the court reversed a decision holding the state’s voter ID law unconstitutional and then overturned a decision that struck down extreme partisan gerrymandering. There’s nothing conservative or traditional about Newby’s actions. They are radical and undermine trust in our institutions.

There’s a broader lesson here, though. Republicans at both the federal and state level have taken the judiciary seriously. GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made securing a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court his priority for years, even decades. At the state level, Republicans have put more emphasis on electing appellate judges than Democrats. They’ve been successful, taking control of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

Democrats, for their part, are too obsessed with executive power. I suspect it’s because younger voters are a major part of the base. They show up in presidential years and stay home in more boring, but, often, more important off-year elections. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the green light for hyper-partisan gerrymandering, and the concentration of power in the hands of those gerrymandered legislators should be a wake up call for all Democrats.

This year, Democrats need to pay attention to judicial races. They need to make sure their candidates are well-funded and supported. With the legislature stripping power from the governor and Newby’s court acting as legislative lackeys, Democrats need to get serious about winning judicial elections. They will need cycles to win majorities and they need to start in 2024.