Why State Courts Are So Important to Our Rights

Fair, impartial, and balanced courts are a key component of protecting and advancing reproductive freedom for all. Whether courts are striking down legislative anti-abortion policies or are blocking attempts to suppress our votes, judges have a unique power to protect and advance our constitutional rights when so many other elected officials are trying to reverse the gains we’ve made. In North Carolina, we vote for our judges at multiple levels, meaning we can have a say in who will be sitting on district and superior judicial benches as well as the judges on our state Court of Appeals and justices on the North Carolina state Supreme Court. These are critical races on our ballots, and not ones to be skipped!

With our partners at Common Cause NC, NC for the People, and the People’s Parity Project, we held a webinar last month, “The Ball’s In Our Court: Why State Courts are So Important to Our Rights.” The webinar included a panel of former state judges discussing the role of the state judiciary in our political and legal system and resources for finding more information about judicial elections. For those of you who missed this webinar, we wanted to share four key takeaways from the event:

• The outcomes of state supreme court races in 2020 and 2024 were determined by just several hundred votes (401 and 734, respectively) out of the nearly 2.7 million votes cast in those races. Your vote absolutely matters!
• State courts often have more impact on our daily lives in North Carolina than federal courts. Between family, juvenile, small claims, and misdemeanor criminal courts, you or someone you know is more likely to interact with a state court. You can help choose what judges sit on those benches.
• While judges need to be above the political fray, you can still find information about them to help you determine your vote. Judicial candidates often have campaign websites and they get endorsements from organizations you may follow. If they are already an elected official, whether a judge or a state legislator, you can look at their past opinions, their voting records, and examine who is supporting their campaign to get an idea of what they may be like on the bench.
• The North Carolina General Assembly has completely politicized our judicial system over the past decade in an effort to remove judicial checks on legislative leaders’ power and to lock in rightwing rule in our state. Judicial elections are one way to counter this politicization.

Since judicial races don’t often get as much attention during election season, and judicial candidates often highlight a general judicial philosophy rather than their political positions, we know many voters may find these races confusing and uninteresting. But they are so important! Below are a few resources to help you better understand our state judiciary system and the importance of judges:

• Check out—and share—Why Judges Matter NC to learn about what our state courts do, how they protect our rights, and who sits on the benches.
• A People’s Parity Project Report, Imbalanced Justice: North Carolina, provides a “comprehensive analysis of the professional backgrounds of North Carolina’s appellate and superior court judges,” sharing where our state courts may fall short and how we can take action to change that. All kinds of North Carolinians come before state courts seeking justice, and we need a state judiciary that better reflects our diverse backgrounds and experiences. 
• An oldie, but a goodie: Check out our 2024 article on the importance of state courts to reproductive freedom.

During the webinar, we also discussed ways to take action outside of judicial elections to build better courts that work for all of us. Three important bills were introduced at the North Carolina Legislature this session—HB 1234, 1235, 1236—to “provide strong ethical standards for the NC Supreme Court, protect public confidence in the judiciary, and safeguard separation of powers in our state government.” Take action on these bills by calling and emailing your state legislators and signing this Common Cause NC petition in support of these policies.

We hope you join us in committing to vote in the judicial elections on your ballot this fall! Together, we can build state courts that work for we the people, not for corporations and billionaires.