State Supreme Court seat still in limbo
We might have anticipated that when Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denied President Obama a U.S. Supreme Court appointment in 2016 that the GOP might try similar gambits out in the provinces. Republicans in North Carolina, one of David Pepper’s “laboratories of autocracy,” have worked for over a decade to solidify their grip on the state by legislatively locking out Democrats. They won another victory against democracy on Wednesday.
North Carolina’s second-highest court Wednesday upheld a Republican effort to gain control of the state’s election board, boosting the GOP bid to undo Democrat Allison Riggs’ narrow victory in the state’s 2024 Supreme Court race.
A three-judge panel for the North Carolina Court of Appeals granted Republicans’ request to stay a lower court ruling that halted a measure passed by the GOP last year that would change how members of the board are appointed.
In lame duck legislation last November, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill stripping appointments to the State Board of Elections from the incoming governor.
Under the measure, the governor would no longer be allowed to make appointments to the five-member board. Instead, that power would be given to the state auditor, a Republican. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) sued Republican legislative leaders over the measure, arguing that it violated principals of separation of powers in the North Carolina Constitution.
Shortly after the court of appeals granted the GOP’s stay request Thursday, Stein asked the North Carolina Supreme Court for a brief administrative stay so he can file a formal request for the court review of the case.
Stein posted to Twitter on Wednesday on how this move increases chances that Republicans steal the Supreme Court seat won in November by incumbent Justice Allison Riggs:
Jefferson Griffin lost. When you lose, you work harder the next time to win. You do not try to change the rules after the election is over. Today’s Court of Appeals decision about the Board of Elections poses a threat to our democracy and the rule of law. The Supreme Court should not allow it to stand.
I fear that this decision is the latest step in the partisan effort to steal a seat on the Supreme Court. No emergency exists that can justify the Court of Appeals’ decision to interject itself at this point. The only plausible explanation is to permit the Republican State Auditor to appoint a new State Board of Elections that will try to overturn the results of the Supreme Court race.
Indeed, the state Supreme Court did not rule in time. Boliek did not waste his. He announced appointments on May 1, the day current Board appointments expired. Boliek appointed a Republican majority:
Auditor Dave Boliek announced three Republicans and two Democrats for the board, picked from lists provided by the state parties. His actions came just a week after trial judges agreed with new Gov. Josh Stein that a law finalized in December by the Republican-controlled General Assembly stripping the governor of board appointment authority violated the state constitution. Stein and Democratic predecessor Roy Cooper sued to overturn the law.
Boliek, who was elected last fall to the post, made the appointments after the intermediate-level Court of Appeals on Wednesday said the appointment switch could still be carried out while broader legal questions are reviewed on appeal.
On appeal to a 5-2 Republican Supreme Court Riggs still sits on while Griffin contests her win. With state issues settled in Griffin’s favor, Riggs has appealed to federal court.
Why should you care? (Axios):
Between the lines: Democrats, voting rights activists and legal experts have warned that if Griffin succeeds, it could give way to more candidates moving to change election rules long after a race is over.
- “The big story here,” said Anne Tindall, a lawyer with Protect Democracy told The New York Times, “is that never, ever, ever before have we seen a court, months after an election, change election rules to retroactively disqualify a class of voters and flip the results.”
- “If you can do that,” she added, “no election is safe — period.”
If Griffin and the NC GOP succeed in stealing this state Supreme Court seat, they’ll be on track to do the same with any close election anywhere in the country where they control the courts. Donald Trump announced that strategy in October 2016.
Trump speaks like a mob boss, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen told the House Judiciary Committee in 2019. “He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders. He speaks in code …” Underlings then go out and execute his non-orders.
Except there was no code in the speech excerpt above, Trump was telling followers exactly how they should approach elections they lose. Like he would. Only accept the will of the voters if you win. It’s a mockery of the democratic process outlines in the Constitution and amendments where “vote” and its variants appear 39 times and “majority” makes 14 appearances.
In MAGAstan self-governance is heads, I win, tails, you lose.
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