Read the federal judge’s ruling that might end the NC Supreme Court election
Six months after Election Day, a federal judge Monday ordered North Carolina officials to certify the Democratic candidate’s narrow victory in the state Supreme Court election.
Challenges to ballots by the state Republican Party and its candidate, N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, have prolonged the race. But now, unless Griffin and the NCGOP appeal and succeed in getting the latest ruling reversed, Justice Allison Riggs will keep her seat on the state’s top court.
“This case concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals,” Chief District Judge Richard Myers wrote in his ruling. “This case is also about whether a state may redefine its class of eligible voters but offer no process to those who may have been misclassified as ineligible.
“To this court, the answer to each of those questions is ‘no.’”
Myers, an appointee of President Donald Trump, also wrote: “That principle will be familiar to anyone who has played a sport or board game. You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done.”
You can read the full ruling here.
