Yes, it's really that bad

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is attacking democracy.

In North Carolina, the 2026 election cycle began before the 2024 cycle ended. On April 30, Republican State Representative Sarah Stevens announced she is running for the seat currently held by Democratic Justice Anita Earls. About a week later, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Meyers issued a decision that declared Allison Riggs the winner of her bid to remain on the state Supreme Court. Her challenger, Jefferson Griffin, conceded two days later.

Earls, who won her seat in 2018, has made clear she’s running for re-election. In order for Democrats to win a majority on the court, they need to hold Earls’s seat next year and then pick up two of the three seats on the ballot in 2028. Earls told an audience in Durham, “Our courts are the last hope as the guardians of our democracy, and that is no exaggeration.”

Conservative columnist Andrew Dunn wrote of her comment, “If that makes you roll your eyes, you’re not alone…Democrats love to turn to their favorite message: that the very future of democracy hangs in the balance. It’s become a familiar refrain — apocalyptic, overwrought, and increasingly tuned out by voters exhausted by perpetual crisis.”

Dunn is wrong. Democracy clearly does hang in the balance. Four members of the Supreme Court of North Carolina were willing to change the rules of the election after the fact. (Let me say that again, because I still have a hard time believing it: Four members of the Supreme Court of North Carolina were willing to change the rules of the election after the fact.) They were willing to disqualify voters who did what they were told to do and were told their votes would count at the time they cast their ballots. If that’s not a direct attack on democracy, nothing is.

In addition, the Supreme Court under the direction of Chief Justice Paul Newby has ignored precedent and taken extraordinary measures to reverse decisions made by previous courts. He’s politicized the judicial system, pushing out career public servants and replacing them with partisans. His court stripped power that has resided with the governor for more than 100 years and essentially allowed the legislature to randomly decide which powers belong to which Council of State office. His decision in the Riggs case showed that he’s willing to undermine the very foundation of American democracy, the right to vote, to achieve partisan gain.

After the court determined that the legislature could use partisan gerrymandering to draw legislative and Congressional maps, Republican legislative leaders gave themselves veto-proof majorities in both houses of the legislature and gave Republicans a 10-4 majority of North Carolina Congressional seats. In an evenly divided state, we’ve only got a veneer of democracy in legislative and Congressional races. Everyone can vote, but the outcome is largely pre-determined.

The Supreme Court has abandoned any pretense that its an impartial body designed to mete out justice. Newby and his comrades have embraced their partisanship and see themselves as delivering Republican victories. They’ve made the legislature an immensely powerful body with few checks on its power while stripping power from the governor. They’ve undermined the concept of judicial precedent and endorsed efforts to erode democracy by limiting the power of the vote.

So, yes, Earls is correct. It’s really that bad. The Republican Party, both here and in Washington, is attempting to undermine our democracy. District elections for legislature and Congress have become hopelessly contorted with predetermined outcomes. Republican candidates no longer concede defeat, making scurrilous accusations about election fraud or trying to change the outcomes after the fact. The 2024 election showed that the Republican judges and justices will support those efforts in order to deliver GOP victories instead of protecting the rights of citizens or the Constitution of the United States.