Statement on North Carolina Supreme Court’s Redistricting Decision

Senator Ralph Hise
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2022

Statement on North Carolina Supreme Court’s Redistricting Decision

Order’s tie-breaking vote was Justice Anita Earls, who refused to recuse from the case funded by her megadonor and argued by her former law partner

Raleigh, N.C. — In a 4–3 party-line vote reversing a unanimous bipartisan trial court, the Democrat-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court tonight ordered North Carolina Congressional and legislative districts redrawn.

The order’s tie-breaking vote was Justice Anita Earls, who refused to recuse herself even though the case was funded by her campaign megadonor and argued by her former law partner.

Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), who co-chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, said, “Democratic judges, lawyers, and activists have worked in concert to transform the Supreme Court into a policymaking body to impose their political ideas. On this and other cases soon to come before them, the justices ‘interpret the Constitution to mean what it would have said if they, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it,’ in the words of former justice Sam Ervin, Jr.”

Hise continued, “This perverse precedent, once set, will be nearly impossible to unwind, as monied interests line up to buy their own justices to set law favorable to them. I’m certain Democrats will come to regret it.”