"Retention" Elections for Judges: Case Will Be Heard Today

Last fall, the Republicans in the General Assembly changed the way judges on the state's Supreme Court run for reelection, and they did it to protect the one conservative judge -- Bob Edmunds -- whose term is up this year.

Judge Bob Edmunds

Judge Bob Edmunds is now running unopposed because the General Assembly decided the only way we can get a different judge on the Supreme Court is to vote no confidence in Bob Edmunds first, at which point Governor Squishy would get to replace him on the bench. The political maneuvering of this new law screams FRAUD like a drag queen at a Baptist picnic.

A law suit challenging the constitutionality of "retention elections" filed by attorney Sabra Faires in Wake County will be heard by a special three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals in Raleigh this afternoon.

Faires is "arguing that the switch from contested elections to up-or-down votes for Supreme Court slots was a change that required a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution – something that did not happen."

According to reporter Sharon McCloskey, Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Skip Stam warned his fellow law-makers that what they were doing was unconstitutional, but they did it anyway (with Skip Stam abstaining on the final vote).

According to McCloskey, "Because Faires challenged the retention law as unconstitutional on its face, a finding in her favor would send any appeal directly to the Supreme Court." And because every single member of the Supreme Court has an interest in the case, how could they legitimately hear an appeal?

Another mess created by the most politically self-interested and operationally inept state legislature in the country!