Riggs may win, but the threat to democracy is still here

Judge Myers exposed the thinly veiled motives and weaknesses of the North Carolina court decisions.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers, a Trump appointee, got it right. He ruled that Allison Riggs defeated Jefferson Griffin in the race for North Carolina Supreme Court Justice and ordered the State Board of Elections to certify the result. In his decision, Myers lays out the stakes of the case beautifully so that the absurdity of Griffin’s claims are clear. His ruling will likely hold because his logic is so sound. He wrote:

This case concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals. This case is also about whether a state may redefine its class of eligible voters but offer no process to those who may have been misclassified as ineligible.

Before this year, almost nobody would have questioned whether or not the rules of an election could be changed after the fact or that rules would apply to some voters but not others. The very argument sounds preposterous, yet that’s the case Republicans made. Disturbingly, a majority of North Carolina’s Supreme Court justices and several members of the North Carolina Court of Appeals tried to legitimize Griffin’s case.

As reporter Bryan Anderson tweeted shortly after Myers’ ruling, “Bigger picture: Put today's order to the side. Republican Court of Appeals Judges Fred Gore & John Tyson & GOP Supreme Court Justices Paul Newby, Trey Allen, Phil Berger Jr. & Tamara Barringer have paved way for retroactive voter challenges. This can't be put back in a box.”

We have a state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals willing to consider anti-democratic measures to alter the outcome of elections after the fact. North Carolina will almost certainly see challenges in the future that undermine democracy. With Republicans now in control of the Board of Elections in North Carolina, the concept of free and fair elections is at dire risk.

We’re watching a case study in the erosion of democratic norms and institutions in real time. As I said earlier, before November 5, 2024, nobody would have believed that the rules of elections could be changed after the fact or that some voters could be subject to rules that did not apply to other voters in the same situation. Six months later, some of the most powerful Republicans in the state have validated those absurdities.

In the immediate aftermath of Griffin’s appeal of the results, conservatives openly questioned his actions. Writer Andrew Dunn argued that the case could damage the credibility of the GOP by giving credence to the argument that Republicans want to steal elections. The conservative Carolina Journal published an article saying, “Conservatism should lead one to respect the rules as they are, not try to change them to our own benefit.” Other leading Republicans and conservatives were privately saying they hoped Griffin’s case would just go away.

Over time, those voices became more muffled. The Supreme Court made a ruling that would have treated military voters in a handful of Democratic counties differently from military voters in every other county in the state. The decision would likely disenfranchise hundreds or even thousands of voters who followed the rules at the time of the election by changing the qualifications for voting after the fact.

The Court of Appeals overruled common-sense decisions by lower court judges to keep Griffin’s case alive. Republican justices and judges seem to have given up the appearance of impartiality. They were trying to give Griffin a partisan victory with the veneer of judicial credibility instead of seeking justice or protecting free and fair elections. With his clear decision, Judge Myers exposed their thinly veiled motives and the weakness of their decisions.

The rulings of the North Carolina courts offered legitimacy to a clearly illegitimate lawsuit. Republicans began to embrace the idea that elections are fluid, not fair. In the future, expect the GOP to look for more creative ways to steal elections because now that’s becoming the norm. The courts have brought shame on themselves and eroded their credibility. They are now seen as partisan instruments, not impartial observers.

As for Democrats, they should take this election as a warning. Judicial elections are as important as any on the ballot. Republicans are electing anti-democratic partisans to the judiciary who will work with GOP candidates to skew or even reverse the outcome of elections. Calling them judges is a misnomer. It’s up to Democrats to elect people who will uphold the integrity of our elections and stand up for the rights of voters instead of the demands of authoritarians.