NC justice withdraws lawsuit
Earls halts litigation after ethics commission ends its investigation
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls voluntarily withdrew her lawsuit against the ethics commission investigating her, saying the suit was no longer necessary since the complaint against her had been dismissed.
The Judicial Standards Commission, which considers complaints against judges, had opened an investigation into Earls after she publicly commented on issues involving diversity in the judicial system.
“I continue to believe that the First Amendment protects my ability to speak about matters of racial equity in the legal system,” Earls said in a statement. “However, I see no need to continue the litigation since the commission has dismissed the complaint against me and at this time I no longer face being disciplined by the court.”
The commission ended its investigation and did not recommend any disciplinary action to the state Supreme Court, according to a release from Earls.
Representatives for the commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earls first sued the Judicial Standards Commission in August, saying its investigation into her public comments violated her First Amendment rights.
In a June interview with a legal publication, Earls had noted the lack of diversity among clerks in the Supreme Court and spoke about the elimination of implicit bias training in the courts system.
“When the culture is that male advocates and advocates who reflect the majority of the court, white advocates, when they get more respect, when they are treated better — I think it filters into people’s calculations about who should argue and who’s likely to get the best reception and who can be the most persuasive,” Earls said in the interview.
The commission told Earls that her comments may have run afoul of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which requires judges to conduct themselves “in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
After filing her lawsuit, Earls sought an injunction against the commission to force it to stop its investigation.
A federal judge denied this request in November, suggesting it was not Earls’ comments about diversity that prompted the investigation, but rather statements that “could be reasonably interpreted as an accusation that plaintiff ’s ‘conservative bloc’ colleagues unethically prioritize their conservative political principles in some decisions.”