Over and over, CIB has emphasized the increasingly central role being played by our courts in upholding strong environmental safeguards and enabling action on the climate crisis. That rising importance of the courts comes in no small part because they have become the principal check on the power of hyper-partisan legislatures. 

Without this last resort of an independent judiciary, those extreme legislative partisans would be free to continue dismantling the foundations of our very democracy itself, such as competitive elections in fairly-drawn voting districts. 

The current legislative majority has also continued to put forward multiple proposals to undercut the ability of many North Carolinians to vote. (A fair and independent judiciary is still the final arbiter of whether those bills pass the Constitutionality test.) 

In this election cycle in North Carolina, the outcome of two key races for the NC Supreme Court will have an outsized role in determining the future of our environment and climate. If either of those seats is flipped to a candidate who supports unlimited power of the current legislative majority to draw its own maps, then jurists of that legal bent will have a majority on North Carolina’s court of final state jurisdiction. 

Recognizing that alarming reality, citizen environmental PACs in North Carolina have taken the step of endorsing candidates for the two NC Supreme Court seats on the 2022 ballot. The endorsed candidates are incumbent Associate Justice Sam Ervin to retain his seat, and current NC Appeals Court Judge Lucy Inman to win the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Robin Hudson. 

When you cast your ballot this time, be sure to remember to vote for judges who will protect our democracy and our environment for us and future generations!