State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

NC Republicans stung by court rulings aim to change judges

News and Observer: RALEIGH Republicans with a firm grip on the North Carolina legislature – and, until January, the governor’s seat – enacted a conservative agenda in recent years, only to have a steady stream of laws affecting voting and legislative power rejected by federal and state courts.

Now lawmakers have seized on a solution: change the makeup of the courts they can control.

Judges in state courts as of this year must identify their party affiliation on ballots, making North Carolina the first state in nearly a century to adopt partisan court elections. The General Assembly in Raleigh reduced the size of the state Court of Appeals, depriving Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, of naming replacements for retiring Republicans.

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