RALEIGH – Democrats tend to find a lot more success in ‘Suing til Blue’ when the courts they bring sham political lawsuits in front of are stacked with Democratic judges that are more at home on a progressive picket line than on the bench. That’s why Governor Roy Cooper has been busy exploiting his judicial vacancy appointment powers to appoint or elevate partisans that will surely serve more as political activists for the Left than honest arbiters of the law.
The N.C. Supreme Court only has one Republican left, after the NCGOP botched (or abandoned) the defense of multiple Republican justices, and one of the Democratic majority is a bona fide social justice warrior. Still, Cooper took advantage of an unexpected retirement of former Chief Justice Mark Martin to pass right over the next most senior justice (Republican Justice Paul Newby) in order to elevate Democrat Justice Cheri Beasley to the top spot on the high court. After all, Beasley, a black woman, checks all the boxes for a politician most concerned with proving his identity politics chops.
Now Cooper has done it again, appointing ACLU lawyer Chris Brooks to the N.C. Court of Appeals. We’d like to think the American Civil Liberties Union would be a serious, constitutionally inclined legal body (it used to be), but in recent years it has proven to be an organization most interested in advancing the Left’s agenda, while ignoring the warranted defense of anyone that dares to be conservative. Brook was formerly a lawyer for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. In his role with the ACLU he was leading the transgender crusade against the ghastly Republican bill to keep men out of little girls’ bathrooms on state property (HB2).
From the AP:
Brook has been involved in litigation successfully challenging North Carolina’s constitutional amendment prohibition on gay marriage and seeking to overturn the state’s Republican-approved “bathroom bill,” as well as a replacement measure. Young joined Cooper’s administration in late 2017 to take over the state’s troubled prison system following the deaths of five workers in prison attacks earlier that year.
“The work of the North Carolina Court of Appeals must instill confidence in the people of our state, reminding them they live within a fair and just society,” Cooper said in a news release. “These appointees will bring extensive legal experience to their service on the court.”
By ‘fair and just’ Cooper means ‘pro-Democrat and social justice.’ Cooper was afforded another appointment as well, and chose a Democrat whose highlight roles have been serving in the administration of former Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue and, most notably, as chief legal counsel for former Democratic Governor Mike Easley – Reuben Young.
Yes, Young served as chief legal counsel to the only governor in North Carolina history to be convicted of a felony. Now Cooper has elevated that stellar legal adviser to be a justice on the N.C. Court of Appeals.
These are the kind of judges Cooper and Democrats are banking on backing them up as they continue suing over every single Republican policy that comes out of Jones Street. Considering recent history, with activist judges literally nullifying statewide votes on Constitutional Amendments, we may as well not even have a legislature. Who needs a truly representative branch of state government when Democrat judges can simply write their own decrees for the rest of us to bow to?
Unfortunately, Cooper’s predictable (and detestable) habit of injecting partisan hacks into our judiciary could have been avoided. One of the six Constitutional Amendments on the 2018 ballot would have vested most of the authority to fill judicial vacancies in the legislature, the most accountable and deliberative branch of government.
However, the amendment failed to get majority approval after a bevy of former governors thought it wise to campaign against it in the name of protecting the power of the executive. So now one man retains the power to appoint whomever he chooses to fill judicial vacancies, and virtually assuring their extended tenure by way of the advantages of incumbency.
Despite their minority status on Jones Street, Democrats have a lot to be happy about – and the rest of us a lot to be worried about – as they turn what is supposed to be sagest branch of government into an extension of the social justice movement. Great…
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