When we talk with voters, we ask what issues they are most concerned about. Here is where the Republican Supreme Court justices stand on the issues that matter most to voters.
EDUCATION
In an unprecedented move, the Republican justices blocked $677 million that our public schools desperately need. The court is threatening to overturn its own recent decision in the landmark Leandro education case. North Carolina currently ranks at the bottom in education spending, despite large budget surpluses.
VOTING RIGHTS
Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby granted a rehearing and restored the voter ID law that the Democratic court had struck down as racially discriminatory. Now, people without photo IDs – including the elderly, people with disabilities, and those without a fixed address – face unfair barriers to voting.
The new GOP majority made it legal for legislators to rig election districts that give Republicans an extreme advantage. As a result, the General Assembly can create veto-proof supermajorities for Republicans, in a state where voters are roughly evenly divided between the two parties.
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
The court has made it harder for injured workers and consumers to get justice. Republican justices have put corporate profits over people. The three Republicans elected in 2020 have voted in favor of employers or corporations – and against injured people – in more than three-quarters of the time. Newby ruled for corporations 89% of the time.
ABORTION ACCESS
Following the Dobbs decision, the GOP-controlled state legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. Republican control of our state’s courts has discouraged constitutional challenges, including to features of the law that may put mothers’ lives at risk.
Other court decisions have signaled where our Republican-controlled courts are likely to go. In a recent parental rights case, a Republican Court of Appeals judge referenced a 1949 case in which the court held that, “the life of a human being begins at the moment of conception in the mother’s womb.” Joining that decision was Judge Jefferson Griffin, who is challenging Democratic Justice Allison Riggs for her seat on the State Supreme Court.
ENVIRONMENT
The Democratic-controlled court issued many rulings protecting people from corporations dumping toxic chemicals into our drinking water and air. Since taking control, the Republican-led court has ruled that Martin Marietta can discharge 12 million gallons of wastewater into Blounts Creek every day. The GOP justices have a track record of ruling in favor of corporations over people the vast majority of the time, a troubling sign for future rulings on environmental protections.
RACIAL JUSTICE
When Justice Anita Earls, the only Black justice on the State Supreme Court, acknowledged the existence of racial bias in the courtroom, Newby pushed for an (ultimately dismissed) ethics investigation against her. Despite extensive evidence, Newby claims that racial bias in the courtroom doesn’t exist. In 2020, Newby said that race “just doesn’t come into the picture in the criminal justice system that I’ve been a part of for 40 years.”
POLICING
The Republican-controlled court refused to define a legal standard for cases of racial profiling, effectively dismissing a challenge to the arrest of a Black man by a Raleigh police officer with a pattern of targeting Black motorists (comprising 82% of the officer’s total traffic stops versus 28% of the population). Selective enforcement of the law based on race is prohibited by the N.C. constitution, but without a mechanism for enforcement, racial profiling can run unchecked.
LGBTQ RIGHTS
Newby is a conservative Christian who wants to seat judges who share his belief that it’s their duty as judges to “fulfill our biblical mandate to be ambassadors for Christ.” At a rally supporting HB2 (the “bathroom bill”), Newby said, “Let me tell you as a judge, our religious liberties are hanging by a thread.” The conservative court signals that it will be of no help protecting LGBTQ rights.
HEALTH CARE
The court could soon strike down a 47-year-old state law intended to stop spiraling health care costs and improve access to health care. This law protects health care in rural areas, according to the state Department of Justice. Lawmakers have rejected half a dozen bills to repeal this law, so now conservatives are asking the court to strike it down.
GUN CONTROL
One of the Republican justices, Richard Dietz, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that a federal law banning the purchase of a gun on someone else’s behalf was unconstitutional. The Court rejected Dietz’s argument and kept the ban on “straw purchases” in place.
HOUSING
The high court could uphold a new state law that will freeze North Carolina’s building codes until 2031, despite rapid growth in many parts of the state. This would make it impossible for the state to reform building codes to make homes more energy efficient and save people money on their power bills.