A photo has surfaced of Jefferson Griffin, who is seeking to throw out votes in order to win a seat on the state Supreme Court, wearing a Confederate uniform. According to The Associated Press, which obtained the photograph, Griffin is posing with other fraternity members before a confederate battle flag at its “Old South” ball in 2001.
Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin is a member of Kappa Alpha, a fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South and claims Confederate General Robert E. Lee as its spiritual founder, the AP reports.
Griffin was the fraternity chapter president in 2002.
For decades, Kappa Alpha has garnered controversy over racist or insensitive actions committed by its members. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a “klan”, a term that many viewed as a subtle reference to the Ku Klux Klan, according to the AP.
The report comes as Griffin, alongside the state Republican Party, continues its efforts to throw out 65,500 ballots cast in the 2024 November election — attempting to overturn the election results in his favor.
Since the beginning of the challenge, numerous reports have shown that Griffin’s challenge disproportionately impacts voters from Democrat-leaning counties, Black and Brown communities, and young North Carolinians. Griffin is also targeting over 5,500 ballots cast by military servicemembers and overseas voters.
Amid the state Court of Appeals hearing arguments in Griffin’s case, North Carolinians, former justices, and legal experts have condemned the Republican judge’s push to invalidate voters.
NC Newsline reports that opponents of Griffin’s attempt to overturn the election see a connection between his lawsuit and his past Confederate traditions.
“These latest revelations about young Jefferson Griffin only reinforce the deeply problematic character flaws that we see in him now. It appears even as a child and a young man, he cared nothing about the feelings or constitutional rights of his fellow Americans,” Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, told NC Newsline. “He was not committed to inclusion. He was not committed to diversity, and he was not committed to seeing all sides of the situation and having empathy.”
“What we are seeing today about Jefferson Griffin from high school and from college has a straight line to the Jefferson Griffin that we see today who is challenging legal votes of 60,000 people,” Blagrove added. “And just like the Confederates lost the Civil War, Jefferson Griffin will lose this election.”
