Judge Orders SOME NC Judicial Primaries Reinstated

GREENSBORO – Am Obama-appointed federal judge has ordered N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals primary elections reinstated. The primaries had been canceled legislatively under the reasoning that redistricting initiatives needed time to run their course, making the February 12 filing deadline too close for comfort.

“U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles said primaries for trial court seats can remain canceled. Her logic: Republican legislators who called off the primaries in a vote last fall advanced a reason for doing so in local Superior Court and District Court races.

When they announced the move, GOP leaders said they were doing away with the primaries just for this year in order to give themselves more time to redraw judicial districts, a process still going on with just weeks before the Feb. 12 opening of candidate filing for primary races. But Court of Appeals judges and state Supreme Court justices are elected statewide and won’t be effected by redistricting.”

That seems to make sense, given the stated reasons for doing away with the primary. Still, Democrats will likely treat this as another feather in their Judicial Activism caps.

“Republican leaders blasted the decision, noting Eagles was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama and accusing her of “once again injecting chaos and confusion into North Carolina elections at the eleventh hour.” Eagles is also part of the three judge panel that, unanimously, threw out Republican drawn legislative districts in a case that has not quite run its full course.

“This law was passed in October, and candidates interested in running for judicial office understood they still had several months to organize campaigns and make a final decision,” state Rep. David Lewis and state Sen. Ralph Hise, chairmen of their respective chambers redistricting efforts said Wenesday in a joint statement. “But because of the court’s interference, they now have less than two weeks to decide. This is a highly partisan ruling by a Democratic judge, and we are evaluating our legal options.””

Even so, the long overdue map redraws for district courts and superior courts will go forward without the primary complicating that process.

Remember, that’s the process the Dems on Jones Street have called ‘racist’ because it portends to effect a majority of black judges across the state. They pointed to eliminating the district primaries as more evidence of Republican racism, of course.

The judge here, even while reinstating some primaries, confirmed Republicans’ reasoning as, well, reasonable.

“The defendants have offered a legitimate governmental interest in this change as to elections of superior and district court judges,” Eagles wrote in her order

These Leftists must only have one play in their playbook. Unfortunately for conservatives, the judicial referees have been playing the part of the Democratic sixth man lately.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the judiciary has been routinely overstepping its constitutional authority when it reverses legislative measures passed by the most representative body in government.

There are not three “co-equal” branches of government. Rather, the judiciary is was designed to be the low man on the totem pole. Legislative bodies in North Carolina and in D.C. should actually remind them of that fact.