Source: The News & Observer
Once again, a Republican justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court is facing questions and criticisms for their clearly unethical and legally dubious behavior.
Most of the five Republican justices on the court have ruled on a case where a conflict of interest exists.
Justice Phil Berger Jr., with Chief Justice Paul Newby’s blessing, refused to recuse himself from two high-profile cases involving his father, Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger, likely in violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
Justice Tamara Barringer and Newby have both ruled in Duke Energy’s favor – Newby, six times – despite them both owning more than $10,000 in Duke Energy stock.
A recent ProPublica investigation also showed that the five Republican justices ignored a recommendation from the Judicial Standards Commission, which investigates ethics complaints about judges, to reprimand two Republican judges who admitted to violating ethics rules.
The latest justice to face ethical questions is Newby, who is no stranger to this sort of thing. Newby, who took office in 2021 after winning his election by only 401 votes out of 5.4 million cast, came into the job acting as though he had been given a mandate by the voters. He immediately fired the head of the Judicial Standards Commission. He then removed and reassigned judges known to rule independently of Republicans’ wishes. Newby has allowed Republican justices to make personal attacks against Democratic justices and is accused of being personally behind the effort to investigate fellow Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls who, as the only Black woman on the court, spoke out against racial and gender biases within the state court system in an interview.
The latest accusation of corruption being made against Newby involves his wife, who owns stock in Plasma Games, an educational software company that has been given nearly $10 million by the state legislature in recent budgets, according to an investigation by The News & Observer. The company has repeatedly received state money even though education officials told them that students weren’t learning from their games. According to The N&O, 80% of the games weren’t even activated as of May 2023. The licenses for those games cost schools $1.4 million.
Newby reported on disclosure forms that his wife has had at least $10,000 invested in the game company since 2020, the year it first received state money.
The House budget writer, Rep. Danny Lambeth (R-Forsyth), said he had no idea that the Newby family was invested in Plasma Games. If Lambeth didn’t know, it appears another budget writer certainly did.
The News & Observer reported that “After state education officials recommended to the NC General Assembly in May that the pilot program be ended, a top state House budget writer attempted to move the project from the education agency’s oversight and continue its funding, documents show.”
The investigation also showed that the company’s founder has given campaign money to Newby and other Republicans.
Durham Democrat Rep. Marcia Morey told The News & Observer, “The more we’re finding out, the more it seems to be unethical.” Morey is on the House budget committee and is a former chief district court judge.
House Minority Leader Robert Reives (D-Chatham) told The News & Observer that the millions given to Plasma Games are just one part of the issue Democratic lawmakers have with the GOP’s spending.
“We’re doing business with companies that don’t have to put in bids, they automatically get these contracts, and we don’t know who these businesses are,” Reives said. “There’s no vetting, there’s no openness about who we are dealing with and that makes me uncomfortable.”
