Trump gets BAD NEWS from state Supreme

I'm joined now by North Carolina Supreme. Court Justice Anita Earls. Thank you so. much for joining me. As we see right now. the results from the Georgia State. Supreme Court election, which obviously. didn't go the way of both liberal. candidates, how does that inform the. urgency of this moment as it relates to. to your race in North Carolina? Well, I can promise you so I first ran. in 2018. and that was also 2 years after. President Trump was elected and so I. certainly understand that I don't take a.

single vote for granted. We're we're. going to work as hard I've been. campaigning since really since January. of last year. Um and I. you know, it's a big state but my goal. is to get across the state so that. people know who I am, what I stand for, what our court does. I just don't think. they've had that same experience in. Georgia. So so I I. the I've not for a minute have ever said.

that I'm going to rely on the the wind. at our back as Democrats in the state. I. know that. even in 2024, there was huge drop-off. between top of the ticket. Some almost 200,000 voters voted for. Governor Josh Stein and did not vote for. Democrat Justice Allison Riggs. So so we. know that at my campaign, we know we. have to do everything we possibly can to. reach voters across the state. You had.

mentioned Justice Riggs' race and I was. heavily involved in. in promoting that race as much as I. could. I think I had Justice Riggs on. no fewer than half a dozen times while. she was campaigning. Are you expecting. any similar interference given the fact. that obviously North Carolina. Republicans have a proclivity to. interfere in these elections and and. this isn't even new. I mean North. Carolina Republicans have been have been. an especially anti-democratic breed of.

that party for a long time from early. efforts to gerrymander that that state. with I think the the judge in that case. said that it was done with surgical. precision. all the way to the Jefferson Griffin. example where. you know, there was a concerted effort. to try and just undermine Justice Riggs. win by trying to invalidate votes that. benefited her from jurisdictions that. benefited her. So, are you expecting any. similar. nefarious behavior from those on the. right? Well, what I can tell you prior to being.

on the court, I was a civil rights. attorney for 30 years and litigated. voting rights cases. It is absolutely clear that the fight to. protect our democracy in this state has. always been a very difficult challenging. one. What I. we are seeing already and and one. important difference this year from 2024. is that now our state Board of Elections. is controlled by the state auditor, a. Republican. All of the county boards of. elections are now under the majority. control of Republicans and we have.

already seen efforts that to my mind to. my eye mirror vote suppression going. back 20-30 years. So, the state Board of. Elections sent letters to 241,000. voters in this state this year saying. there's some discrepancy between your. voter registration and our other. records, would you please contact us? But then at the bottom of the letter in. big black bold letters it says. furnishing false information in response.

to this notice is a felony. So, you. know, I heard from folks who are afraid. that they risk a felony conviction if. they go to vote. No, they don't. And. anyone receiving this letter, I want to. be clear, they absolutely can vote. There is nothing wrong with their voter. registration. But that to my mind. mirrors what happened in 1990 in North. Carolina when the prominent. African-American mayor of Charlotte at. the time Harvey Gantt challenged Jesse. Helms for the US Senate.

Again, you know, very hotly contested. race and in that. >> [clears throat]. >> race the North Carolina Republican Party. sent postcards to black voters across. the state. saying if you've moved it's a felony to. try to vote. Now that again is not true. as a matter of state law. and at that time the US Department of. Justice Civil Rights Division sued the. North Carolina Republican Party and. resulted in a consent order in which the. Republican Party said, you know what, we. won't do this again. Yeah. So again, that.

putting that history on on on full. display. Now you had spoken a little bit. about what we can expect as far as you. being on continuing to be on the state. Supreme Court. What are some of the. cases we can expect to go before the. court to kind of underscore how. important it is to continue having. liberal voices be present there? Well, let me answer that in two ways. People should appreciate that our court. decides all sorts of things that impact. their daily lives. So we issue decisions. that impact how much they pay for.

electricity, whether or not the state. government can protect our environment. We decided a case implicating whether. Duke Power could pass on to consumers. the cost of cleaning up coal ash. We. decide issues about whether workers who. are injured on the job are fairly. compensated, whether people who go to. the emergency room and are charged more. than uninsured and charged more than. insured patients, whether they. can sue hospitals over that. All sorts. of ways in which people's pocketbooks. are impacted by decisions that we make,

but we also make those decisions that. impact fundamental rights. And. in 2022 our court was four Democrats, three Republicans and that court decided. that extreme partisan gerrymandering. violates the state constitution. We. required that districts be drawn fairly, and this was a very non-partisan. decision. We set out neutral criteria to. measure the part of whether a map is a. partisan gerrymander or not. And so, it. wouldn't matter who which party did it.

If it was unfair, it would be unfair to. the voters of the state and violate. their state constitutional rights under. that opinion. Um, so when districts were. redrawn, North Carolina sent seven. Democrats and seven Republicans to. Congress. But then the court flipped. After the elections in 20 November of. 2022, the court became five Republicans. two Democrats. And the new court did. something that courts never do, should. not happen, hasn't happened in the over. 200-year history of our court. They. said, "We're going to rehear that same.

case." Yeah. And they concluded that. they don't have the power to constrain. the legislature. So, the state. legislature redrew our congressional. districts, and in 2024, North Carolina. sends 10 Republicans and four Democrats. to Congress. So, this really impacts the. entire country. If North Carolina still. had that 7-7 delegation today, Congress, the US House of Representatives, would. be in control of Democrats. There would. be an entirely different environment in. in Washington [clears throat] in terms.

of checks and balances on the power of. the president. And. we, you know, need to have state courts. that understand the importance of. protecting people's rights. This idea of of. that the judicial branch has no power to. constrain the legislature. I I I presume. that's an offshoot of um the independent. state legislature theory. But isn't that. counter to the very foundation of our. government where we have checks and. balances, and the courts are there to. serve as a check on a judicial on a.

legislative branch that's that's not. following the law, for example? Exactly. My my judicial philosophy would say that. it's the role of the state Supreme Court. to hold the other two branches of. government accountable to the state. constitution. And in fact, our court. recently failed to do that with regard. to another fundamental state. constitutional right. That's the right. to a sound basic education. And we. eliminated we ended the. piece of litigation that had been going.

on where trial courts found that our. schools were not offering a sound basic. education to all the students. A prior. court 2022 court ordered that the state. fund public education. New court 2023. puts a halt to that order. And then just. a couple months ago our court ended that. litigation. But I will just want to. point out to folks that other rights our. court is fully ready to order the. the state to do the right thing. So when.

it comes to property rights, if the. Department of Transportation wants to. build a road over your private property. and you don't think they're paying you. the the money that they should for your. property rights, you go to court and the. court will order the state to pay you. money for taking your property rights. That that So my point is. it certain rights our court believes in. enforcing. They have stepped away and. and. in my view abdicated their right to or.

their responsibility to enforce the. rights of our children to have a sound. basic education and the rights of our. voters to cast a ballot and have that. ballot counted equally. And. I just have to remind people that my. court is the one in four Republicans on. my court. ordered that the ballots of military and. overseas voters be thrown out in the. 2024 election. So think about what that. means. People who put on a uniform to. serve our country, our state court said.

their ballots would not count and it was. only because a federal court stepped in. and said that that order violated due. process and equal protection under the. federal constitution that those votes. were counted and Justice Riggs was sworn. in as a justice. What do you presume. will be the most significant case um. that you'll have to contend with in this. upcoming term? We will be hearing a lot of cases about. separation of powers. Does the. legislature have the power to weaken our.

our governor? Um they passed a number of. measures that have taken power away from. the governor and those will be pending. in front of us. Uh we will um continue. to be hearing cases about electricity. rates and um on the and on the criminal. side um North Carolina has the death. penalty. There are numerous death. penalty cases that will be coming before. us and and I think that public safety is. vitally important. I think that um our. justice system needs to.

to understand what it takes to provide. public safety. So there's there's just a. a lot of important issues that will be. continuing to come before us. On on a. more of a national scene and I know that. you're not this is not going to be an. issue that you contend with personally, but I'm I'm curious what your uh what. your take on on it is. You know, as it. relates to this $1.8 billion. slush fund um. from a a legal vantage, do you presume. that this that something like this would. hold up in court where. you have Donald Trump make a deal.

basically with himself um that instead. of a $10 billion self-deal payout from. the IRS to the president of the United. States, he's going to settle for a. $1.776 billion. uh uh slush fund where he has. virtually unilateral authority. even though it's via hand-picked uh uh. commission members to dole out money to. convicted insurrectionists um. to the tune of making each one each of. those 1,500 uh pardoned insurrectionists. millionaires. Do you can you speak on.

the legality of that move? Well, what I can say is that I. fundamentally believe in the importance. that no one is above the law. And and that goes for um people who. attack police officers, that goes for. public officials, that whether rich or. poor, um whatever your background, whatever your station in life, um in. this country, I believe our we. fundamentally. rest our government on the notion that. no one is above the law. And so that.

means that that these issues now call. upon the courage of state sometimes. state uh court judges, sometimes federal. court judges, um but I I continue to. hold faith in the in the in the um. proposition that we have enough judges. across our judicial systems who. understand the importance of the rule of. law and who have the courage to uh and. the backbone um to stand up and rule the.

right the right way um without fear or. favor, without uh. unfairly bending the law to to fit a. particular political ideology. So so. that's, you know, my my um. philosophy has always been the. importance of equal justice under the. law. I am not beholden to any particular. political philosophy. I just want to. make sure that we live up to that. guarantee of equal justice. Justice. Earls, um for folks who are watching and.

listening right now, how can they help. your campaign and when does voting start. and end? Right. So in North Carolina, we um my. election will be in the general election. on November 3rd. People can uh learn. more about me and support my campaign by. going to my website, earlsforjustice.com. I'm on seven different social media. platforms. There you can link to all of. them through my website, uh but please. follow me. Please um share my uh social.

media information and help me get the. word out because I you know I I have. less than 6 months now before November. 3rd and I want to make sure that people. across North Carolina understand how. important their vote is. And and I want. to um kind of emphasize for folks who. are watching and listening right now. that if you saw what happened in Georgia. where I think a lot of people took the. national environment for granted and. those two state senate seats didn't go. uh in in the Democrats direction, this. is an opportunity to make sure that we. focus on this race and focus on this.

race early. Um you know, obviously uh in. in trying to get a majority back on the. North Carolina Supreme Court, it starts. with with winning this race right here. Um your money, your contributions go a. long way, especially um in these races. where there's not. got you know, endless sums of money. pouring into them like like uh like. major senate races. So, I'm going to put. the link uh to Justice Earls' website. right here on the screen and also in the. post description of this video. If. you're listening on the podcast, I'm. going to put it in the show notes. Take.

the opportunity, elevate her voice, make. sure that people uh know that this race. is happening um and and that's going to. be the biggest step forward in terms of. making sure that people uh get out there. and vote. So, Justice Earls, with that. said, I appreciate you taking the time. today. Best luck in the campaign trail. Thank you so much for caring about our. courts.