Under the Dome: One candidate vocal on election challenge; one silent. What ethics experts say

Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Emily Vespa.

State Supreme Court candidate Allison Riggs has made clear her stance on the monthslong legal battle over her apparent narrow November win against GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin.

“Judge Griffin’s determination to waste taxpayer dollars in a baseless attempt to overturn his electoral loss won’t change my commitment to the people who elected me to this office,” Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, said in a statement last week.

Riggs agrees with the Supreme Court’s recent decision against allowing Griffin’s ballot challenges to bypass lower courts, she added, but she’s “disappointed that the door has been opened to dragging this out for so long.”

Griffin, on the other hand, hasn’t made any public comments on the case. It would be a “violation of our code of judicial conduct” to do so, he’s repeatedly told media outlets.

Some experts have questioned Griffin’s interpretation of the North Carolina Code of Judicial Conduct, which governs state judges and judicial candidates, including Riggs and Griffin.

NC GOP spokesperson Matt Mercer said Griffin is following Canon 3 of the code, which says judges shouldn’t speak publicly on the merits of any pending case in the course of their official duties.

But Canon 3 doesn’t seem to apply here, said Charles Geyh, a professor at the Indiana University law school and expert in judicial ethics. Riggs, who remains on the Supreme Court while the dispute is settled, has recused herself from the case.

“You don’t want judges, by virtue of their position as judges, to interfere with the public perception of their own impartiality by weighing in on cases that they’re going to decide,” Geyh said. “But when you’re not wearing your judge hat at all and you’re wearing your litigant hat, it doesn’t worry me to the same extent.”

Geyh said the North Carolina code is based on a model from the American Bar Association, which provides commentary to help explain what the rules require. One comment says the code doesn’t prohibit a judge from making public statements as a party involved in a case.

The North Carolina Supreme Court, which adopts the state code, didn’t adopt the ABA commentary, but that doesn’t mean the court disagreed with it, Geyh said.

Wake Forest University law professor Ellen Murphy said assuming Griffin’s interpretation of Canon 3 did apply, speaking out to educate the public on the increasingly complex case is still acceptable. The code says judges have an obligation to protect the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

“The question then becomes, ‘Is talking about it going to do that?’” said Murphy, who’s also a member of the state bar’s ethics committee. “You can make an argument that bringing such an action actually harms the public perception of the judiciary more than talking about an action that you are bringing or that has been brought against you.”

Still, Mercer said in an email that he thinks “judges and justices who are careful with their public statements is generally a good thing.”

Both candidates have previously faced scrutiny for their public statements. A Republican lawmaker in October filed an ethics complaint against Riggs over an attack ad in which she warned that Griffin could uphold an abortion ban if elected. After Griffin’s campaign publicized the complaint, Democrats accused him of similar ethics violations.

“It’s clear Justice Riggs has little regard for the code of judicial conduct,” the state’s Republican Party chairman, Jason Simmons, said Tuesday in a statement to The News & Observer. “Her campaign was centered on an issue that very well could come before the court, but she didn’t care - she was determined to smear Judge Griffin to try and win an election.”

At the time, Riggs said she didn’t break the code. An adviser to the Griffin campaign also denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Embry Owen, a spokesperson for Riggs’ campaign, said in an email, “As a candidate for public office, Justice Riggs remains committed to exercising her First Amendment rights, educating North Carolinians about action she has taken as a party to this case, and speaking up for the more than 65,000 voters who Judge Griffin seeks to disenfranchise.”

Murphy said Griffin’s challenges have spurred another ethics question she finds troubling.

“The number of people, media and otherwise, who have asked me to talk about whether the suit itself is problematic — while there is a right to bring the suit, without a doubt — concerns me for public confidence in the judiciary,” Murphy said. “If we don’t have public confidence in the judiciary, then the system fails, and that both concerns, disappoints and frightens me.”

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET CUTS COULD JEOPARDIZE NC MEDICAID

Congressional Republicans may make changes to Medicaid spending to pay for President Donald Trump’s priorities, such as immigration enforcement and tax cuts.

That could mean a rollback of North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion, which could impact more than 600,000 people statewide, reports Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi.

State lawmakers included a provision in North Carolina’s Medicaid expansion law that would end the program if the federal share of costs dropped. Unless health care organizations shoulder the difference, Medicaid expansion might be terminated.

Federal funding proposals are still nascent, and any cuts to Medicaid would likely face strong headwinds. But some proposed changes could be “detrimental to the people that receive these lifesaving services,” a state health and human services department spokesperson said.

WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON

• North Carolina joined more than 20 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block its freeze of federal funds, report Mary Helen Moore and Avi Bajpai. Attorney General Jeff Jackson said on social media that the freeze is “so sweeping that it could cause widespread and immediate harm across our state.”

• Trump named four North Carolinians to a committee that will review the federal response to Hurricane Helene and other disasters, reports Danielle Battaglia.

Today’s newsletter was by Emily Vespa. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.

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