A North Carolina Supreme Court justice has filed a federal lawsuit against the state's judicial standards commission after the body opened an investigation into comments she made about the diversity of the state's judicial system, court documents show.
Anita Earls, who is one of two Black justices on the state's highest court, argued in the lawsuit that her comments on diversity are protected as political speech under the First Amendment.
The North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission launched its latest investigation into Earls after she told the online legal journal Law360.com that the state supreme court should examine the reasons behind the lack of diversity in state courts and what implicit biases may be within the judiciary.
The investigation into Earls seeks to determine if those comments violated the state's Code of Judicial Conduct.
In a letter sent to Earls on August 15, the commission stated they are reopening an investigation based on Earls' comments that "appear to allege that your Supreme Court colleagues are acting out of racial, gender, and/or political bias in some of their decision making."
The letter notes a previous investigation into allegations that Earls disclosed confidential information about the court at public events and to a reporter ended with a dismissal and a warning about public comments. It says the panel voted to reopen that investigation in light of the more recent interview.
Earls is suing the commission and asking a federal court to stop any action against her for simply expressing "her right to speak on matters of public concern," the lawsuit states.
According to Earls' lawsuit, her opponents have continuously launched "intrusive investigations, initiated by one or more anonymous informers." Earls' attorney, Pressly Millen, told CNN his client's free speech cannot be regulated or restricted.
"We're just trying to get this commission to recognize that there's this thing called the First Amendment that applies to all of us including judges," Millen said.
In the Law360.com article, Earls was asked why the people making oral arguments before the court are overwhelmingly White males, despite diversity in the state bar and the state itself. She answered that she sees implicit biases in decisions made by the court due to "gender and race discrepancies." Earls said that White male advocates who appear before the court "get more respect" and are "treated better."
"I'm not suggesting that any of this is conscious, intentional, racial animus. But I do think that our court system, like any other court system, is made up of human beings and I believe the research that shows that we all have implicit biases," Earls said.
Earls, a Democrat, is running for re-election in 2026. If found to be in breach of the state's judicial standards, she could face sanctions up to removal from the bench.
The state's highest court flipped in 2022 from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority, CNN previously reported.
In a statement to CNN, the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit or the investigation into Earls but said its body is "non-partisan."
"The North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission is a non-partisan investigative body comprised of members appointed by the Chief Justice, Governor, General Assembly, and State Bar Council. The Commission is statutorily obligated to investigate all instances of alleged judicial misconduct and cannot comment on pending investigations," North Carolina Judicial Commission Executive Director Brittany Pinkham said in the statement.
