The Post endorses Anita Earls for NC Supreme Court 

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North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls is running for re-election to the state's top court.

The United States Senate race between Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley tops the midterm ticket in North Carolina but there’s another campaign that has daily impact on everyone: the state Supreme Court race between incumbent Justice Anita Earls and Sarah Stevens.

We urge North Carolina voters to support Earls, the far superior candidate by résumé and deed, with their ballots.

For starters, Earls, a Democrat elected to the court in 2018, has performed admirably by walking the walk on oversight and accountability, something the Republican-dominated panel has failed miserably on pressing issues from approving racist gerrymandering to suppress Black voting strength, ballot restrictions, higher utility rates as well as a reversal of the Leandro ruling that gave the GOP-led General Assembly a pass on funding equity for the state’s poorest school districts.

Stevens, a Republican former state representative who spent 17 years in the General Assembly, has been a consistent advocate for maintaining state government’s conservative lean, including the courts. Anyone who claims state Supreme Court chief justice Paul Newby as a judicial hero, is showing her true colors as a hyperpartisan. We urge you to pass on them by voting for Earls, who also understands the importance of the court’s administrative role.

Earls has been the rare voice of dissent on the state court, willing to openly challenge Newby, who has shown no problem putting politics ahead of judicial reasoning and justice. She withstood a ham-handed attempt by the N.C. Judicial States Commission to levy disciplinary action for her public comments on racial diversity in North Carolina’s judicial ranks. JSC dismissed its complaint – which could’ve cost Earls her job – only after she filed a federal lawsuit to protect her First Amendment right to free speech.

The construction of North Carolina’s Supreme Court favors Republicans, who have a 5-2 majority and a chief justice in Newby pushing the panel rightward. To set the stage for a reversal that benefits North Carolina, Earls should remain on the panel.

NC Court of Appeals

The election will determine seats on the state’s second-highest court, where 15 judges elected to eight-year terms decide legal and procedural mistakes from district, superior and administrative courts.

Three Democrats are on the panel, and their seats are up for election. We endorse John Arrowood, Toby Hampson and Christine Walczyk

Arrowood was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2017, was reelected in 2018 to become the first openly gay judge elected to the court. He was previously a special Superior Court judge.

Hampson, who previously clerked at the Court of Appeals, has sat on the bench since 2018.

Walczyk is a District Court judge who has worked as a trial judge for 19 years in Wake County. 

All three incumbents offer a judicial philosophy of applying law equally in the real world – something Republicans on the court and their challengers haven’t impressed upon anyone as candidates. 

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