North Carolina justice ends suit against ethics panel after it dismisses complaint
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina Supreme Court judge on Wednesday ended her federal lawsuit against an ethics commission, saying the judicial panel that investigated her public comments about the courts, colleagues and race dismissed a complaint against her.
An attorney for Associate Justice Anita Earls, one of two registered Democrats and the only Black lawyer on the seven-member court, filed paperwork to end the lawsuit against the state Judicial Standards Commission and its members.
The committee investigated comments Earls made in an interview with a legal news website, according to her lawsuit, which took the unusual step of making the committee’s traditionally secret work public. She said the panel’s investigations had a chilling effect on her right to free speech and interfered with her duties as a judge.
In the fall, a judge and panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant Earls’ request to block the commission’s investigation while her lawsuit continued. But a news release from Earls’ attorney on Wednesday said the commission had notified Earls that it had dismissed the complaint “without recommending any disciplinary action to the Supreme Court.”
The commission, made up of judges and non-lawyers chosen by the chief justice, legislative leaders and the governor, is charged with investigating possible violations of the state’s judicial code of conduct. The panel can recommend to the Supreme Court that a judge receive anything from a public reprimand to suspension or dismissal. Or it can issue a personal warning letter itself.
The commission does not comment on investigations, state court spokesman Graham Wilson said Wednesday.
“I continue to believe that the First Amendment protects my ability to speak on issues of racial equity in the legal system,” Earls said in her press release. “However, I see no need to continue the lawsuit as the Commission has dismissed the complaint against me and at this point I am no longer being punished by the Court.”
Earls’ attorney, Press Millen, said the commission’s dismissal decision is confidential and will not be released.
According to Earls’ lawsuit, a committee staffer wrote her in August saying that in light of an interview she had with Law360, the panel was reopening an investigation into a previous complaint that had been dismissed.
In the article, Earls discussed the court’s decision to terminate a commission that focused on fairness and equity in the state court system and what she viewed as a lack of minority judicial clerks on the court.
“I really think there is implicit bias,” Earls said. She added that “there have been instances where I have felt very uncomfortable on the bench because I feel like my colleagues are unfairly cutting off a female lawyer,” including one who was black. Earls’ allies publicly defended her, saying issues of race and gender needed to be addressed.
The commission’s letter to Earls in August said her comments in the interview could have violated a section of the judicial code that directs judges to “conduct themselves at all times in a manner likely to preserve the confidence of the promotes public awareness of the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary’. Anyone can file a complaint with the commission, and the name of a complainant is not made public.
The commission’s lawyers had argued in federal court that Earls’ lawsuit should be dismissed, citing a legal doctrine that discourages federal courts from hearing a case that could interfere with the authority of state courts. And they said the committee process provided ample opportunity for someone to raise First Amendment concerns.
Earls, a civil rights attorney who was first elected to the court in 2018, has been one of the leading objectors to several major Republican Supreme Court rulings since the GOP regained a majority in early 2023. Earls plans to seek re-election in 2026, according to Wednesday’s news. release said.