North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls has dropped her First Amendment lawsuit because the judicial panel scrutinizing her public comments about the courts, colleagues and race has dismissed a complaint against her (article available here).
The commission had been investigating the justice for comments she made in an interview with Law360 last year in which she bemoaned the lack of diversity in the state judiciary and the unfair treatment of female advocates arguing before the top court.
An attorney for Associate Justice Anita Earls, the only Black jurist on the seven-member court, filed paperwork to end the lawsuit against the state Judicial Standards Commission and its members. Justice Earls' suit alleged her freedom of speech was in jeopardy and interfering with her duties as a justice.
"I continue to believe that the First Amendment protects my ability to speak about matters of racial equity in the legal system," Justice Earls said in a statement announcing the decision. "However, I see no need to continue the litigation since the commission has dismissed the complaint against me and at this time I no longer face being disciplined by the court.
Earls, a civil rights attorney first elected to the court in 2018, has been a chief objector to several key rulings issued by Republicans on the Supreme Court since the GOP regained a majority in early 2023. Earls plans to seek reelection in 2026, Wednesday’s news release said.