Billy Corriher

North Carolina

Freelance Contributor at Freelance

State courts @peoplesparity @action_ppp. Former freelance journalist & author. he/him

Articles

NC can’t let sore-loser candidates undermine our democracy

1 week ago | restorationnewsmedia.com | Corey Friedman |Billy Corriher

A few months after I left my hometown of Cherryville, North Carolina for college, I voted in my first presidential election. Like so many people in America, I was shocked to watch the disputed 2000 election play out in Florida and then the U.S. Supreme Court. One side accused the other of trying to change the rules after the election so its candidate would come out ahead. I was even more shocked, decades later, when something similar happened in North Carolina.
With North Carolina Elections Under GOP Control, Expect New Barriers to Voting

3 weeks ago | democracydocket.com | Billy Corriher

In a victory for North Carolina Democrats, Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs was sworn in for a new term on Tuesday, days after Judge Jefferson Griffin conceded that he lost the 2024 election for the seat. Griffin’s Republican friends on the high court had ruled to throw out ballots by changing the rules retroactively, prompting a federal court to step in to stop the election theft.
Energy Demand Set to Double in Pacific Northwest by 2046

1 month ago | governing.com | Billy Corriher

Over the next two decades, demand could increase by between 1.8 percent and 3.1 percent annually, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council heard Tuesday. The projected growth will come primarily from companies building more data centers in the region, more electric vehicles on roads, electrifying buildings, computer chip manufacturing and the production of “green hydrogen” created by running an electrical current through water to split the molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Some Pro-Trump Towns Push Against Hosting Detention Centers

1 month ago | governing.com | Billy Corriher

Leavenworth, Kansas, is a prison town. The conservative city and the surrounding county of about 80,000 is home to a constellation of federal, state and military correctional facilities, including Leavenworth U.S. Penitentiary, which once housed infamous gangsters like Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. In 2023, then-Mayor Jermaine Wilson — who was once incarcerated himself — said prison facilities were a part of the city’s DNA.
How a Judge’s Arrest Undermines Access to Justice

1 month ago | governing.com | Billy Corriher

The arrest of a Wisconsin judge last week by federal agents over decisions she made in her courtroom, when federal agents showed up during the criminal trial of a Mexican immigrant, is an escalation of the Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on the rule of law. And it’s not just the defiance of court orders to halt deportation.
The Democratic Justice Who Paved the Way for Jefferson Griffin in North Carolina

1 month ago | democracydocket.com | Billy Corriher

On Nov. 8, 1994, Chief Justice Ernest Hornsby lost his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court by 262 votes. But Hornsby didn’t concede. Instead, he asked state courts to retroactively change election rules to count 2,000 additional ballots — and his colleagues on the high court agreed to do it. But Hornsby’s attempt to overturn an election ultimately failed when the federal courts stepped in to order Alabama to count ballots under the rules that existed on Election Day.
Things are dire in that North Carolina judicial race the GOP is trying to steal.

2 months ago | slate.com | Billy Corriher

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. In a cowardly unsigned opinion on Friday, two judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of one of their colleagues, Judge Jefferson Griffin, in his quest to overturn an election that he narrowly lost in November. Republican Judges Fred Gore and Hunter Tyson didn’t throw out the 65,000 ballots and declare Griffin the winner, as he had requested.
Things Are Getting Dire in That State Judicial Race the GOP Is Trying to Steal

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Billy Corriher

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. In a cowardly unsigned opinion on Friday, two judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of one of their colleagues, Judge Jefferson Griffin, in his quest to overturn an election that he narrowly lost in November. Republican Judges Fred Gore and Hunter Tyson didn’t throw out the 65,000 ballots and declare Griffin the winner, as he had requested.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court finally works for workers. Billionaires want to change that

2 months ago | wisconsinexaminer.com | Billy Corriher

I’ve studied the rulings of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for well over a decade, and for most of that time, the court tended to put corporations and employers over workers or consumers. That has changed in the last couple of years. And now that voters have elected a pro-worker majority, billionaires like Elon Musk are spending big to return a pro-corporate majority to power.
A Judge Lost His Election. He Asked His Colleagues to Declare Him the Winner Anyway.

2 months ago | slate.com | Billy Corriher

Jurisprudence Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. On Friday, lawyers for Judge Jefferson Griffin asked his colleagues on the North Carolina Court of Appeals to retroactively change the rules for the 2024 state Supreme Court election and throw out tens of thousands of ballots.