Supreme Court election litigation visits 4th Circuit

(The Center Square) – Arguments are scheduled in the North Carolina Supreme Court in two weeks and the election for Seat 6 on its bench remains undecided.

A litigation addendum to the Nov. 5 election has stopped the State Board of Elections from issuing a certificate, where it has ruled on protests and is poised to award Democrat Allison Riggs a 734-vote victory from the more than 5.5 million ballots marked. Republican Jefferson Griffin believes the state board in error of his protests, which consume about 66,000 of those ballots.

The calendar for the state Supreme Court includes two sessions next month – Feb. 11-13 and Feb. 18-20. The scheduled next session is April 15-17.

Lawsuits entangle each candidate, the state board, and courts on the state and federal levels. Monday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., heard 90 minutes of arguments. Justices presiding were Toby Heytens, Paul Niemeyer and Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Riggs is an incumbent in the election and trying to win her first judicial election. After 14 years leading counsel and time being executive director for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, then-Gov. Roy Cooper appointed her to the state Court of Appeals in December 2022. On Sept. 11, 2023, he lifted her to an appointment on the state Supreme Court.

Griffin was appointed a District Court judge in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory, won a four-year term to keep the seat in 2016, and won a four-year term for the state Court of Appeals in 2020.

In each of the last five state Supreme Court elections, Republicans have defeated Democrats. The Democratic Party gained a 4-3 edge on the bench with Michael Morgan’s win in 2016 and pushed it to 6-1 entering the 2020 election cycle.

If victorious, Riggs and Anita Earls would be the only Democrats on the bench.