Erin Smith

1 week ago | statecourtreport.org | Justin Lam |Erin Smith |Alicia Bannon

The court approved a law to strip the governor’s election board powers, risking creating a precedent for partisan power-grabbing. Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the legislature’s power grab over the State Boards of Elections, the agency charged with administering elections, campaign finance disclosures, and all 100 county election boards.

1 week ago | statecourtreport.org | Erin Smith |Justin Lam |Alicia Bannon

Judge Jefferson Griffin (R), who had attempted to have more than 60,000 votes thrown out in his race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat, has conceded to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs (D). His action ends a dispute that extended six months after the 2024 election and played out in both state and federal courts. Griffin’s concession came just two days after a federal district court judge ordered the election be certified.

3 weeks ago | statecourtreport.org | Joseph Richie |Sarah Kessler |Erin Smith

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will address the scope of Gov. Tony Evers’s state constitutional authority to approve spending bills passed by the legislature only “in part,” by line-item vetoing other parts. Presented with a 2023 budget bill that approved a two-year increase in school funding limits through the 2024–25 school year, Evers struck the “20” and the dash from references to “2024–25” so that they read “2425.” As altered, the bill increased school funding for 402 years, not 2.

1 month ago | statecourtreport.org | Justin Lam |Alicia Bannon |Erin Smith |Eric Petry

In a dispute that has stretched five months past Election Day, a state appeals court ruled last week that over 60,000 North Carolinians who voted in the 2024 state supreme court election will have to prove their eligibility or risk having their ballots thrown out. The court also held that the votes of hundreds of children and dependents born abroad to North Carolinians will not count. The ruling in Griffin v.

1 month ago | statecourtreport.org | Alicia Bannon |Erin Smith |Eric Petry |Andrew Garber

On April 1, Wisconsinites will cast their ballots in a state supreme court election that is already the most expensive judicial election in history. The Brennan Center has documented an estimated $66.9 million in spending to date on the race for an open seat on the court, much of it from national figures and groups — all evidence that judicial elections have entered a new era of politicization.