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Voting Rights
On Thursday NC Senator Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake) announced his intention to file a bill that would allow the NC State Board of Elections to review constitutional challenges to candidates and potentially remove them from the ballot. The board previously voted to dismiss a challenge seeking to remove Trump from the primary ballot, with four out of five members saying they lacked the authority to do so, given that primary ballots are decided by parties. It is unlikely that Chaudhuri’s bill will progress in the NCGA, and Republican NC House Speaker Tim Moore has even declared an intention to file a bill that bars the election board from disqualifying candidates for insurrection.
Justice
The state attorney general’s office has asked the NC Supreme Court to provide guidance to lower courts about how to use a particular study when evaluating claims of racial discrimination in jury trials. This could have implications for an upcoming hearing over whether racial discrimination played a role in the conviction of Hasson Bacote, a Black man on death row, based on the Racial Justice Act. That case could also impact the convictions of other people on death row.
A committee considering changes to the North Carolina State Bar’s disciplinary processes met again on Friday. The bar counsel, Carmen Bannon, spoke to the committee to address their concerns of “cancel culture,” saying that she did not believe political motivations or “cancel culture” had been a factor in any of the bar’s disciplinary cases. The committee also heard from lawyers who have represented bar members facing discipline, who said that social media has caused disciplinary matters to become potentially less private. While Republican legislators have been pushing for changes to the disciplinary process, a group of Democratic lawmakers warned that the requested reforms could reduce transparency.
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