North Carolina’s highest-ranking judicial official is personally behind the push for an investigation into a fellow justice, a state lawmaker claimed Wednesday, calling it a politically motivated attack.
Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls was recently put under investigation, WRAL reported last month, for criticizing racial and gender biases within the state courts system. Earls, a Democrat, is the only Black justice on the court. She’s now suing to stop the investigation, saying it violates her First Amendment rights. Earls’ lawsuit claims she was accused of violating a rule for judges against impugning the integrity of the courts.
The identity of whoever initiated that investigation into Earls is officially a secret. But state Rep. Abe Jones — a Raleigh Democrat who previously served for 17 years as a judge — said at a news conference Wednesday that Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, is the one who pushed for the investigation: .
A spokesman for Newby and the courts system didn’t immediately provide a comment when reached, nor did a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party. Past requests for comment to Newby, about the Earls investigation, have also gone unanswered.
Asked how he was certain Newby was behind the investigation, since the courts system is not allowed to publicly identify the identity of whoever filed complaints against Earls, Jones said he had sources but wouldn’t identify them. “Rest assured: What I told you is accurate,” he said.