GREENSBORO, N.C. (Legal Newsline) — A North Carolina Supreme Court justice is claiming she has been a target of the state's Judicial Standards Committee after expressing her free speech regarding the lack of diversity in the North Carolina judicial system.
Anita S. Earls filed a complaint Aug. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission and others, alleging First Amendment violations and other claims.
Earls, an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, claims in her suit that she is being subjected to intrusive investigations for exercising her First Amendment rights. She claims the investigations are a result of her speaking out about the operation of North Carolina's judicial system and the lack of diversity.
Earls further claims the investigations were initiated by "one or more anonymous informers" and that she could face punishment including a caution letter that would permanently be in her file and available to anyone conducting a background check - as well as possible removal from the bench. Earls alleges one of the most recent investigations began in August of 2023 after her remarks appeared in a legal news publication, in which she cited the North Carolina Supreme Court's lack of judicial clerks from racial minority groups and the interruptions of females during oral arguments.
Earls seeks monetary relief, interest and all other just relief. She is represented by Pressly Millen, Raymond Bennett and Samuel Hartzell of Womble Bond Dickinson LLP in Raleigh.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina case number 1:23-CV-00734