North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls. Courtesy photo
'A Chilling Effect'
An ethics investigation into a North Carolina Supreme Court justice’s comments about the judiciary’s lack of diversity and implicit biases could discourage other judges from speaking about the issue, experts say.
“The concern is that by subjecting someone to allegations of this kind whenever they have the temerity to be critical – in what struck me as a very constructive way – it can have a chilling effect on other judges,” said Charles Geyh, an Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor.
Two months ago, the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission informed Justice Anita Earls -- one of two Black jurists on the high court -- that it had opened an ethics probe over statements she made in a Law360 interview.
In the article from June, Earls suggested she is treated differently during oral arguments by her colleagues. The commission has accused Earls of undermining the public’s confidence in the judiciary, but she has since filed a lawsuit arguing that the investigation violates her First Amendment right to free speech.