North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr. announced he will not seek reelection to his seat, a decision that closes one chapter of the Berger family's long run in state politics while potentially opening another. Berger Jr. plans to serve out his current term, and while he has not committed to running for chief justice or any other office, he says his exit from the associate justice seat is not the end of his public service.
Berger Jr. told WRAL that his commitment to North Carolina and the law does not end with his term, though he gave no timeline for announcing his next move as of Thursday. He was elected to an eight-year term in 2020 and joined the state's highest court in January 2021, after winning a seat on the N.C. Court of Appeals in 2016 when he defeated incumbent Judge Linda Stephens, according to background reported by Carolina Journal. Before the bench, he served as Rockingham County District Attorney and as an administrative law judge, and in 2014 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress.
A Father-Son Political Exit
Berger Jr.'s decision arrives alongside a separate, equally significant departure: his father, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger Sr., will leave the North Carolina legislature at the end of 2026 after conceding the N.C. Senate District 26 Republican primary to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page in March. The elder Berger, who had served as Senate leader since 2011, lost the primary by just 23 votes following an official recount, per WRAL's reporting. Hoodline previously covered the heated primary fight that led to that defeat.
The overlapping exits remove two of the state's most prominent conservative figures from their respective branches of government by decade's end. Berger Jr. has said more than 2.7 million North Carolinians elected him to the Supreme Court knowing about, or having information about, his father's legislative service — a point he has raised amid ongoing questions about conflicts of interest. Critics have argued that his relationship with his father created a conflict when the justice heard cases involving the General Assembly, and Berger Jr. has responded that his father appeared in those cases because of his official legislative position, not personal interest. He has declined to recuse himself from cases involving the legislature.
Recusal Rules and Past Complaints
The dispute touches on a broader procedural question: under a Supreme Court administrative order issued in January 2022, motions asking a justice to recuse are assigned to that same justice, who can rule alone or refer the matter to the full court, according to Lawyers Mutual. That order followed ethics complaints over justices hearing cases tied to family members or legislative enactments. A then-Democratic-majority court had ruled in 2022 that individual justices have final say over their own recusal.
Berger Jr. also faced a 2022 campaign finance complaint alleging improper use of campaign funds to support a political action committee backing Republican judicial candidates. Separately, N.C. House Democrats introduced House Bill 1234 in June 2026, a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine strict judicial recusal standards for judges facing financial conflicts or family ties to legislative parties, according to Common Cause NC. Hoodline has also reported on a related state elections board complaint involving GOP fundraiser donations tied to top Republican legislative leaders, including Berger Sr.
What Berger Jr.'s Exit Means for Court Control
Republicans currently hold a 5-2 majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, which has seven seats total, after taking control of the court in 2023. Republican judges won every statewide judicial race in North Carolina in both 2020 and 2022. But three seats, including Berger Jr.'s, come up for election in 2028, and Democrats could retake control of the court by flipping all three, per WRAL.
Under the Code of Judicial Conduct, sitting judges are generally prohibited from endorsing candidates for public office unless they themselves are candidates, meaning Berger Jr. cannot endorse Republican Sarah Stevens in her current race against Democratic incumbent Justice Anita Earls. That race, the immediate judicial election preceding the 2028 open seats, pits Earls against Stevens, who served as N.C. House Speaker Pro Tempore from 2017 to 2024, according to The Assembly. Campaign finance reports filed in July 2026 showed Earls had raised more than $4.4 million for her reelection bid, compared with $336,000 raised by Stevens, according to Smoky Mountain News.
The Path to Chief Justice
Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, is 73 years old and has a term expiring in 2028. Under 2023 state budget legislation, the General Assembly raised the mandatory judicial retirement age from 72 to 76, allowing Newby to complete his eight-year term through the end of 2028 — a change that, per the same reporting, means he would reach the state's mandatory retirement age of 76 during another eight-year term if reelected. The North Carolina chief justice is elected directly by voters, and Republicans currently hold all three Supreme Court seats scheduled for election in 2028.
Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs won her seat in the 2024 election over Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin by just 734 votes after months of post-election legal challenges, illustrating how narrow margins have repeatedly decided the court's balance, the Smoky Mountain News reports. The Republican and Democratic parties have spent tens of millions of dollars fighting over control of the Supreme Court, which can approve or block political maps for state and federal races and hears roughly 60 cases annually out of more than 1,000 appellate cases considered statewide.
Berger Jr. said he is considering other ways to remain in public service, though he offered no specifics on whether that means a bid for chief justice or another office altogether. His departure, paired with his father's exit from legislative leadership, marks the close of a era in which the Berger name carried outsized weight across two branches of North Carolina government — even as the fight over who controls the state's highest court, and how judicial conflicts of interest are policed, continues into the 2028 election cycle.
