Articles
Repairing the damage to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
What defines an activist court? Is it one that establishes new rules by expanding and stretching the constitution to write a perceived wrong, or is it a court that looks to readdress prior rulings and potentially establish precedents more grounded in the constitution? Traditionally the former is what many would consider to be an activist...
Bill Creates a Smoother Transition for Judicial Retirements
A bill in the General Assembly would allow some judges who reach the state mandatory retirement age to complete their terms, limiting the disruption of their retirements. North Carolina Judges Are Forced to Retire at 72 North Carolina law (GS 7A-4.20.) requires sitting judges to retire by the end of the month of their 72nd...
State Should Protect Privacy or Withdraw from Voter Registration Data Program
North Carolina joined the ERIC data-sharing program to clean its voter registration rollsSeveral states have recently withdrawn from the program over concerns about data security and the influence of non-state actors in the programNorth Carolina should either take steps to assure data privacy or join other states in withdrawing from ERIC The Electronic Registration Information...
Testimony for Removing the Literacy Test from North Carolina’s Constitution
I spoke in favor of House Bill 44, removing the literacy test from the North Carolina Constitution at a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on the morning of March 1. My prepared comments are below: I am Andy Jackson with the John Locke Foundation. I speak in favor of House Bill 44, the constitutional...
Impact of Wake County Elections Bill: Partisan Index for Wake County Commissioner Districts
House Bill 99 looks to modify Wake County Commissioners elections from partisan and countywide to non-partisan elections and by district. This proposed change has caused some to exaggerate the impact of the bill. So, what do the numbers say? Utilizing the Wake County 2022 election data on the State Board of Elections website, I created...
Wake Elections Bill Goes Too Far, and Not Far Enough
House Bill 99, sponsored by Erin Paré (R-Wake), introduces an essential reform to how county commissioners would be elected in Wake County. It also makes a change that would deny voters helpful information. Wake County Should Elect Commissioners by District. So Should Other Counties The first change the bill would make is to change how...
North Carolina Constitution: Repeal the Literacy Test and Add Citizen-Only Voting
The literacy test should be removed from the North Carolina ConstitutionA requirement that only citizens may vote should be added to the North Carolina ConstitutionThe General Assembly should put both amendments up for a vote of the people in 2024, but perhaps at different timesVoters in 2024 may have a chance to make two changes...
Elections Offices Will Not Accept “Zuck Bucks 2.0”
I wrote on January 20 about a new effort by progressives to influence election administration in North Carolina and elsewhere. The threat of progressives controlling election administration has not diminished, however. The [Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)] launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence in 2022 to create “a set of common values...
North Carolina Supreme Court is correct to rehear Voter ID and Redistricting rulings
The North Carolina Supreme court is scheduled to rehear two high-stakes election lawsuits on redistricting and voter ID. The State Supreme Court ruled on two different voter ID lawsuits last year: one regarding the constitutional amendment and the other regarding the law implementing voter ID passed by the state legislature. The court is only looking...
Congressional Vote Highlights the Need for a Citizens-only Voting Amendment
A recent vote in Congress highlighted the need to add a citizen-only voting amendment to the North Carolina Constitution. The District of Columbia City Council voted to grant noncitizens voting rights last November. Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, Congress has the power to stop laws enacted by the city by making a disapproval resolution....
Felon Disenfranchisement Is Right and Constitutional
Convicted felons should have their right to vote restored only after they have entirely repaid their debts to societyThe United States and North Carolina constitutions both authorize and enshrine felon disenfranchisementThe North Carolina Supreme Court will likely reverse a lower court ruling overturning North Carolina’s felon disenfranchisement lawThe North Carolina Supreme Court held a hearing...
Legislation Would Affirm The Right of Police Officers to Vote
A bill introduced in the North Carolina House of Representatives would clarify that election officials cannot prohibit police officers in uniform from entering a polling place to vote. House Bill 6, the “Uniformed Heroes Voting Act,” would clarify that police officers and others in uniform from voting: No person seeking to vote may be refused...
Redistricting Special Master Bob Orr Shifts Responsibility for Democratic-Favored Congressional Map onto California Professor
In a recent WFAE news interview, special master Bob Orr seemed to shift responsibility for North Carolina’s congressional maps from the court’s assigned special masters to the University of California professor advising themOrr also said that he and the other special masters responsible for redrawing the maps didn’t fully understand the criteria handed down to...
Attorney General Josh Stein’s Criminal Libel Case Financed by a Single Donor
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has been fighting criminal charges filed against his campaign after airing a misleading ad against his opponent in the 2020 election. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freema pursued charges around August of 2022, but it has been stalled in Federal courts as Stein questioned the constitutionality of the law....
North Carolina Removes Hundreds of Thousands of Registrations from Voter Rolls
County boards of elections in North Carolina regularly remove voter registrations of people whom they confirm have died or moved out of the countyIn addition, county boards conduct “no contact” list maintenance every two years to remove registrations of those who have not voted for a long timeIt is erroneous to call that biennial list...
State Board of Elections Announces Max Contribution Increase for 2024 elections
Early last week North Carolina State Board of Elections issued a statement announcing an automatic adjustment to campaign contribution limits, increasing the maximum contribution from $5,600 to $6,400. The state board of elections is required by statute to modify the campaign contribution limit for state and local campaigns following every election. The original limit was...
North Carolina Republican Voter Registrations to Eclipse Democrats by 2029
How did voter registration in North Carolina change in 2022? What can we expect for voter registration in the state in 2023 and beyond? Let’s find out using the John Locke Foundation’s Voter Registration Changes page. Party Registration Changes in 2022 Here are the party registration changes for 2022: Democrats increased by 10,044 to 2,505,604.Republicans...
Attorney General Declines to Prosecute Mark Meadows for Voting Fraud
Last spring, former North Carolina Congressman and Trump administration official Mark Meadows faced allegations that he committed voter registration fraud: The allegation is that he registered to vote at a place he never maintained as a residence and then voted absentee by mail with that registration, committing both voter registration and election fraud. (Shortly after,...
Lame Duck North Carolina Supreme Court May Have Just Paved the Way for Redistricting Reversal
General Assembly leaders plan to redraw state legislative districts, but their plan might not comply with the North Carolina ConstitutionThe North Carolina Supreme Court has reopened the redistricting process with a recent ruling in Harper v. HallThe renewed redistricting process would likely result in the overturning of Harper v. Hall by a new Supreme Court...
Justice Berger Channels His Inner Scalia in Voter ID Dissent
The late United State Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was justifiably famous for his sharp dissents. Justice Phil Berger Jr. seems to have channeled his inner Scalia in his dissent in Holmes v. Moore, a case in which the lame-duck North Carolina Supreme Court voted 4-3 on party lines to overturn the state’s voter ID...
Allison Riggs Will Likely Have a Short and Unhappy Tenure on the Court of Appeals
Gov. Roy Cooper has announced that he will appoint progressive attorney Allison Riggs to the North Carolina Court of Appeal. Riggs will complete the term of Richard Dietz, who won election to the North Carolina Supreme Court last November as part of a Republican sweep of statewide judicial elections. Riggs has made a career of...
Allison Riggs’ Will Likely Have a Short and Unhappy Tenure on the Court of Appeals
Gov. Roy Cooper has announced that he will appoint progressive attorney Allison Riggs to the North Carolina Court of Appeal. Riggs will complete the term of Richard Dietz, who won election to the North Carolina Supreme Court last November as part of a Republican sweep of statewide judicial elections. Riggs has made a career of...
North Carolina Democratic Party Faces Further Division Following 2022 Election Results
The North Carolina Democratic party saw significant movement in their party leadership recently, with more likely to come. WRAL’s Paul Specht in a long-winded but excellent report, which I encourage everyone to read in earnest, discussed the departure of the state Democratic party executive director Meredith Cuomo and Democrats’ perspective of this year’s election. While...
Here Is a Novel Idea: Let the Constitution Decide Moore v. Harper
The U.S. Constitution grants state legislatures the power to regulate congressional redistrictingThere are different interpretations of how to define “state legislature”No matter which interpretation the U.S. Supreme Court uses in Moore v. Harper, the best and most likely outcome of the case is a narrow decision in favor of the North Carolina General AssemblyThe United...
