North Carolina High Court Judge Sues to Defend Protected Remarks

North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita S. Earls hit the state’s Judicial Standards Commission with a lawsuit Tuesday, alleging its investigation into her remarks about a lack of diversity in state courts violates her constitutional right to engage in political speech.

The First Amendment bars the commission, “as an arm of the state, from stifling or even chilling free speech, especially core political speech from an elected Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court,” Earls said in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

The commission notified Earls that it intended ...