judicial elections

May 6, 2014 - A North Carolina Supreme Court race that's attracted more than $1 million in attack ads and other election spending leading up to today's primary has made national headlines -- thanks in part to research and reporting by Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.

May 2, 2014 - Deep-pocketed interest groups are spending unprecedented amounts to influence a critical primary race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat. Here's a look at the key people and groups behind the Big Money onslaught.

November 1, 2013 - As spending on state judicial races skyrockets, so does voters' belief that all that money is influencing judges' decisions -- and that judges need to step aside from cases where a party has spent on their behalf.

October 18, 2013 - A redistricting lawsuit has landed in the N.C. Supreme Court, where plaintiffs are seeking the recusal of Justice Paul Newby because his 2012 re-election campaign got much of its support from the same GOP group involved in drawing the new political maps. They cite a similar case out of West Virginia that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled for recusal.

August 1, 2013 - A federal trial about to get underway over the drawing of district lines for judges in Baton Rouge, La. could determine how the Voting Rights Act will be applied in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision throwing out a key part of the landmark civil rights law.

June 14, 2013 - With special-interest spending on judicial races soaring, a new study finds that a state supreme court justice who gets half of his or her contributions from business groups votes in favor of business interests two-thirds of the time.

May 24, 2013 - With its trailblazing public financing program for judicial elections targeted for elimination by Republican state leaders, North Carolina got a visit this week from two prominent West Virginia conservatives who made a case for why such programs benefit a state's people and economy.