The threat to Democracy in North Carolina: Sarah Stevens’ Troubling Alliance with Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby Undermines the Sanctity of North Carolina’s Judicial System

Recent reporting by ProPublica further exposes and continues to shed light on Chief Justice Paul Newby’s abuses of power that tarnish the integrity of North Carolina’s highest court. Reporter Doug Bock Clark writes, “Few beyond North Carolina’s borders grasp the outsize role Newby, 70, has played in transforming the state’s top court from a relatively harmonious judicial backwater to a front-line partisan battleground since his election in 2004.”

Chief Justice Newby, along with his hand-picked Republican judicial candidates, undermines the foundation of the Court’s role as a check and balance for other branches as outlined in our state constitution. Sadly, under Newby’s leadership, the Court has morphed into a mechanism that rubber stamps the unconstitutional actions of the General Assembly and advances Newby’s own personal and political agenda. The reporter claims NC Republican Party spokesperson Matt Mercer even threatened them to kill the piece: “I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,” Mercer said in his email. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.”

Rep. Sarah Stevens, Newby’s anointed candidate for Supreme Court, has a long history of close association with Chief Justice Newby and a track record of doing his bidding in the Legislature to continue eroding democracy. In the General Assembly, she led the charge to raise the mandatory judicial retirement age so Newby could complete his term. She called it “an honor and pleasure” to speak with Newby, and he has joined the slate of conservative judges to stump for her candidacy in the primary. His wife even personally gave $3,800 to Stevens’ campaign.

If elected, Stevens would only continue and even surpass Newby’s extreme record on the Court. Having served in the General Assembly for 16 years, she wouldn’t serve as a check on its power, but as its mouthpiece on the Court. North Carolinians cannot trust her to be an independent voice on our state’s highest court.

“NC Representative Sarah Stevens has spent her career in the General Assembly undermining North Carolina’s Constitution – not upholding it,” said Chair Anderson Clayton. “She helped draw gerrymandered maps that silenced voters and locked in Republican control of the legislature. She supported laws that stripped power from Democratic elected officials. And now she wants to sit on the Court meant to check legislative overreach? Voters will see right through it.”

Read more quotes from the article below: God’s Chief Justice by Doug Bock Clark

Gene Nichol, a professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said Newby had essentially turned the court into an arm of the Republican Party. “Newby,” he said, “has become the chief justice who destroyed the North Carolina Supreme Court as an impartial institution.”

“It speaks to someone who’s so stupid they don’t know the rules,” Hunter told ProPublica. “Or someone who’s so malevolent that they don’t care.”

“The distinct line between the judiciary, the legislature and politics is blurring,” said Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington who specializes in judicial ethics. “And if we don’t preserve that, it’ll be naked power all the way down.”

When ProPublica emailed questions to Newby’s daughter, the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director, Matt Mercer, responded, writing that ProPublica was waging a “jihad” against “NC Republicans,” which would “not be met with dignifying any comments whatsoever.”