The Corruption on the NC Supreme Court Is Right Out in the Open

 

Daddy Dearest, with Junior

RALEIGH North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. will not be recused from two high-profile cases involving his father, the Republican Senate leader. 

The court’s Republican justices denied Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s motion requesting Berger Jr.’s recusal on Friday, writing that the Senate leader was involved in the case in an official capacity only — not a personal one. 

“We believe that Justice Berger can and will execute his responsibilities in this case fairly and impartially,” the majority wrote. 

Rather than deciding on recusal himself, Berger Jr. referred the motion to the full court to consider. 

In a dissenting opinion, the court’s two Democrats noted that the Code of Judicial Conduct makes no distinction between family members acting in their official capacity and personal capacity in its rules around recusal. Justice Allison Riggs, who authored the dissent, noted that Justice Berger previously refused to recuse himself in another case involving his father that challenged the state’s voter ID law. 

“To achieve the desired outcome in this case, members of this Court who typically ascribe to a strict textualist philosophy are eager to add words to the Code of Judicial Conduct,” Riggs wrote. “... I suspect the reason we have not changed these rules is simple — the optics of overhauling existing ethics standards to accommodate Justice Berger and Senator Berger are problematic, to put it mildly.” 

In both cases, Cooper is challenging laws passed by the General Assembly that strip him of his appointments to various boards and commissions. One of those laws, which is currently blocked by a lower court’s order, would drastically restructure state and local election boards and give all appointments to legislative leaders — including Berger Jr.’s father, Senate leader Phil Berger, who is named as a defendant in both cases....

(Kyle Ingram)