Control of the North Carolina Supreme is up for grabs in the midterm election. There are two seats held by Democrats right now, but if the Republicans are able to win one of them, they would hold a majority. Right now, Democrats have a 4-3 majority.
The potential flipping of the court has media Very Concerned about the politicization of the courts.
The courts’ politicization has increasingly been a topic of conversation for a few years now but has heated up even more over the last year. At the heart of some of those conversations have been Justice Phil Berger Jr., still early in his term, who endorsed Allen in his primary. Likewise, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby also voiced his support for Allen in a tweet that was not technically an endorsement. This prompted an ethical debate among those interested in the integrity of the bench.
While some argued the support Allen received in the primary pushed the envelope, there’s no doubt the General Election is looking more like a full-on political campaign. The super PAC Results for NC, Inc., which is tied to Sen. Thom Tillis, amid a slew of pin-pointed donations, bolstered Republican Supreme Court candidates with donations of $5,600. In addition, former Rep. Mark Walker launched winthecourts.com, a website that supports Republican candidates for the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Walker has occasionally promoted the effort on social media, showing off a bus bearing the likeness of each candidate on its exterior.
Meanwhile, Beckett Adams writes about the common leftist response to political, judicial, or electoral defeats:
Lose a presidential election? Abolish the Electoral College or claim the election was rigged (see: Bush vs. Gore, Trump vs. Clinton, and Kemp vs. Abrams). Even election truther and former President Donald Trump , a longtime Democrat, has fallen back on this playbook. (He learned from the best!) Lose a Supreme Court seat? Expand the bench. Lose a vote in the Senate? Complain it’s not fair Wyoming, with a population of 580,000 people, has equal representation in the Senate as California , which is home to 39 million people. (Curiously, they never complain Rhode Island, population 1 million, has the same representation as Texas, population 30 million.)
A Supreme Court decision doesn’t go your way? Undermine the legitimacy of the entire institution.
In 2019, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts stated in no uncertain terms that questioning the legitimacy of conservative victories is a key part of the Democratic electoral strategy.
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In other words, “It’s legitimate only when we win!”
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