Earlier this month, Governor Stein vetoed House Bill 377, a bill that would give Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby the power to suspend judges in the North Carolina court system without pay.
It would be an extraordinary power to give one man, and would make North Carolina the only state in America to give such power to its chief justice.
Stein’s veto came following an outpouring of veto requests from pro-democracy and good government advocates. In an op-ed, State Senator Woodson Bradley noted that Newby has been called “possibly the most ethically compromised chief justice in the country.”
Bradley noted that Newby regularly presides over cases where he has significant apparent conflicts of interest, including Duke Energy rate cases. Newby and his wife have reported owning more than $20,000 in Duke Energy stock. And ProPublica has reported extensively on Newby using the powers of his office to protect his friends and punish his political enemies.
Bradley also called attention to a recent Cardinal & Pine report that Newby had recruited Trey Allen to primary Supreme Court candidate April Wood after she refused to raise money at the home of convicted child sex offender Harvey West. “As a survivor myself, this betrayal to women and children burns me up,” Bradley wrote.
