North Carolina judicial candidates have been posting quotes of praise from Chief Justice Paul Newby on social media this year, even though the state's Code of Judicial Conduct bars sitting judges who are not themselves up for reelection from officially endorsing candidates. Newby, the Republican chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, is not currently a declared candidate for reelection, and his public statements backing fellow Republicans have already drawn formal ethics complaints.
Candidates Cite Praise, Not an Outright Endorsement
According to reporting by Kyle Ingram of the News & Observer, Court of Appeals candidate George Bell and Supreme Court candidate Sarah Stevens both posted statements of support attributed to Newby. Newby said Bell “knows and follows the law and would make an excellent judge,” and said Stevens “represented her constituents well and would be an outstanding addition to the court,” per the article. Stevens told the paper that Newby informed her his comments were not official endorsements and that he had not used the word “endorse.”
Matt Smith, a Republican Court of Appeals candidate who lost his primary, posted a similar message of support from Newby and described it as a statement of praise rather than an endorsement, the News & Observer reports. Beyond these specific statements, Newby has released statements praising Republican judicial candidates' qualifications more broadly, and he has also spoken at rallies and headlined fundraisers, according to the same report.
What the Judicial Code Actually Says
North Carolina's Code of Judicial Conduct permits a judge to endorse a candidate only if that judge is also a candidate, according to the News & Observer's account of the code. Canon 7 of the code, which governs judges' political conduct, applies to judges and candidates for judicial office, per the codified version of the Code, and the Code itself is promulgated by the state Supreme Court under state law, according to the North Carolina Judicial Branch. Newby is 71 years old, has not announced any plan to seek reelection, and his current term runs through 2028; if he ran again and won, he would reach the state's mandatory retirement age of 76 during that new term and would be required to resign at that point, the News & Observer reports.
A guidance memo reportedly complicates the picture of how the rule is enforced. Then-executive director of the Judicial Standards Commission, Carolyn Dubay, issued a memo reiterating that judges not actively up for reelection could not endorse candidates, but she resigned her position shortly after, and the commission later withdrew the memo, according to the News & Observer. A related March 11 memo had advised judges to limit political campaigning to periods when they were facing reelection, but that guidance was promptly replaced with an older, less specific version after senior Republican judges objected, per a News & Observer opinion piece. That piece notes Chief Justice Newby appointed Chris Dillon, a Republican, to chair the commission.
Complaints Filed, Then Rejected
Newby's public support for candidates has prompted formal ethics complaints, the News & Observer reports. A voter filed two complaints against Newby in February and September combined over candidate social media posts claiming his support, according to the paper's review of the commission's letters. The Judicial Standards Commission investigated and dismissed the complaints regarding Newby's perceived endorsements, rejecting both in letters shared with the News & Observer, which said the allegations were either insufficient to suggest a code violation or involved potential legal errors outside the commission's authority.
Those proceedings are not unusual in their secrecy. Commission investigations are confidential and rarely result in public discipline, per the News & Observer, and the commission only makes suggestions to the Supreme Court on punishments — meaning the state's justices could ultimately be called upon to judge their own conduct. Separately, the Carolina Public Press reports the commission received 560 complaints in 2022, dismissing about 64% upon initial review, and that since its inception the Supreme Court has issued 66 disciplinary orders based on the commission's findings.
A Broader Pattern of Political Involvement
Legal scholars say Newby's conduct fits a wider pattern. Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor specializing in judicial ethics, said Newby has stretched the political bounds of his office in other ways and has pushed boundaries in ways that threaten to blur the distinction between judges and partisan politicians, according to the News & Observer. Geyh said campaigning can create tension because it makes judges act like politicians, raising concerns about impartiality and independence, and he added that under a literal reading, Newby's public support appears to violate the judicial code. “Judges should not be politicians in robes,” Geyh said, arguing judicial legitimacy depends on preserving that distinction.
Geyh also said North Carolina's partisan judicial elections can put candidates in a difficult position, while noting the public broadly supports electing judges and tends to trust judges it helped select, the News & Observer reports. Separately, ProPublica has reported that Newby pushed to make North Carolina's judicial elections explicitly partisan and to eliminate public financing for judicial races. ProPublica also reported that Newby regularly met with General Assembly lawmakers to advocate changes to the judicial system, advocated a law increasing the secrecy of the Judicial Standards Commission, and personally encouraged the commission to investigate Justice Anita Earls over her comments about diversity in the judicial system.
The News & Observer also reported that a flag linked to the January 6 insurrection flew outside a beach home owned by Newby's wife in 2024; Newby said he was unaware of the flag's association and intended it only as a statement of faith. Newby's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on this story, according to the News & Observer.
Who Appoints the Watchdogs
How the Judicial Standards Commission itself is assembled has become part of the controversy. Newby appoints six of the commission's 14 members, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein appoints two, and Republican leaders of the North Carolina House and Senate appoint six more, per the News & Observer. The commission's composition shifted in 2023, when the Republican-led legislature removed the State Bar's appointment power over four commission members and gave those four appointments to its own leaders instead, according to the same reporting.
A Duke University public policy professor said the gradual dismantling of policies meant to keep the judiciary above politics by the Republican-controlled legislature has driven the court's polarization, according to a separate ProPublica investigation. That report also found the North Carolina Supreme Court rejected disciplinary recommendations against two Republican judges who had admitted violating the state's judicial code, with the court offering no public explanation after the commission had recommended public reprimands for both.
Candidates and Officials Navigating the Loophole
Judicial candidates have found a workaround to the endorsement restriction by announcing reelection campaigns immediately after winning their current race, the News & Observer reports, since declaring candidacy right away technically keeps a judge in nominal compliance even though the practice runs counter to the spirit of the guidelines. Republican Justice Phil Berger Jr., who began an eight-year term in 2021, endorsed a candidate in the 2022 Supreme Court election and has since decided not to run for reelection as an associate justice, leaving open a possible run for chief justice or another position, according to the report.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Allison Riggs, elected in 2024, has attended multiple events supporting Democratic judicial candidates in 2026 and wrote that Durham voters can keep Justice Anita Earls, who is seeking reelection, on the North Carolina Supreme Court this fall, the News & Observer reports. Riggs's current term runs through 2032, and she has not announced a reelection campaign of her own.
