The election on November 3 will decide a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. The candidates are running for an 8-year term. The Democratic nominee is incumbent Anita Earls and the Republican nominee is Sarah Stevens, who recently resigned from her position as member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. Republican justices currently have a 5-2 majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The North Carolina Supreme Court decides important questions of state law
In recent years, the Court has ruled on important issues. This year, in the Leandro group of cases challenging the constitutionality of the state’s school financing system, the Court reversed its 2022 decision that required the state to provide schools with additional funding to provide an adequate education, altering the fate of the case on procedural grounds. In doing so, the Court ended three decades of litigation over public school funding.
In 2023 the Court also reversed itself in two voters’ rights cases, holding that the state constitution did not permit the courts to play a role in policing partisan gerrymandering, and upholding a voter ID law that had been previously struck down.
This year the Court will hear two major separation-of-powers lawsuits with the Governor against top legislative leaders. The Governor challenges a series of laws modifying the membership structure and stripping the Governor’s appointment authority for seven prominent state boards and commissions, along with a law limiting his choices when filling statewide judicial vacancies.
These cases are a few examples of the impact the Court has on North Carolinians’ lives. The winner of this election will be a part of eight years of future rulings, affecting the everyday rights of North Carolina residents and businesses.
To help you decide
Here’s background on the candidates’ positions, relevant rulings, experience, and publicized endorsements. Follow our links to get further information.
The Candidates
Anita Earls
On abortion, Earls opposes the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She said that “the Constitution’s protections for privacy encompassed a woman’s right to privacy and her own body.”
On education, before joining the Court, she represented students in school desegregation and education civil rights cases. As a justice, she dissented from a decision that dismissed a case seeking equitable school funding. She argued that North Carolina was failing to meet its constitutional educational obligations.
On the environment, Earls says that protecting a clean environment is among the rights that North Carolinians should enjoy under the law. She sees connection between implicit racial bias in the law and the quest for environmental justice.
On healthcare, she calls access to healthcare a right enshrined in the North Carolina Constitution. She describes her endorsement by Planned Parenthood as being partially about the freedom to make healthcare decisions.
On immigration, Earls criticized federal immigration enforcement actions that she said were causing fear among lawful residents and immigrants with no criminal records. She argued that the constitutional rights of North Carolinians must be protected.
On LGBTQ+ rights, she has thanked transgender people “for the contributions you make to all our lives.”
On marijuana, Earls supported recommendations to decriminalize simple possession, citing available data indicating that marijuana arrests in North Carolina disproportionately affect Black residents despite similar use rates across racial groups.
On voting rules, she has advocated for broad voting rights protections and fair representation in the redistricting process. She previously litigated voting rights cases and worked on redistricting issues as a practicing attorney. As a justice, she dissented when the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned recent voting-rights and redistricting precedents, holding that the state constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering.
Anita Earls is currently a justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court. She was previously a civil rights attorney with a focus on the right to vote. She has worked at a private civil rights firm and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. She founded and was executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She is a graduate of Williams College and Yale Law School, and she has taught at Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill, and the University of Maryland.
Earls’sendorsementsinclude: former Governor Roy Cooper; North Carolina Association of Educators; Eric H. Holder, Jr., former U.S. Attorney General; North Carolina AFL-CIO; Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic; Durham Legislative Delegation; EMILY’s List; Sierra Club North Carolina; and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, among others.
Sarah Stevens
On abortion, Stevens, as a North Carolina House representative, supported a bill banning abortions after 12 weeks, calling the bill a “mainstream approach” to abortion restrictions. She said, “The unborn will be recognized as having a fundamental right to be born.”
On education, she voted in the House to opt North Carolina into a program providing federal tax credits for donations that can go towards private schools. She voted for a bipartisan measure supporting veterans in higher education.
On the environment, Stevens voted for a bipartisan bill reducing and managing the disposal of single-use waste. She voted to override the governor’s veto of a bill that shifted control of environmental appointments from the governor to the legislature.
On healthcare, she voted against expanding Medicaid eligibility in 2013.
On immigration, Stevens voted for a bill that expandedrequirements for local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On LGBTQ+ rights, she voted for legislation prohibiting transgender students from participating in girls’ school sports, as well as legislation that would shield parents from abuse or neglect charges from not supporting their child’s transgender identity or transition.
On marijuana, in 2021 Stevens opposed efforts to legalize marijuana in North Carolina, but while being open to some degree of decriminalization. She voted against permanently legalizing hemp and CBD products in North Carolina in 2022.
On voting rules, Stevens introduced House Bill 958, which among other provisions reduced early voting days for primaries and post-election contests.
Sarah Stevens is currently focusing on her election for North Carolina Supreme Court Justice. Prior to that, she served as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. During her time in the House, she served as both the Republican Leader and the Former Speaker Pro Tempore. She also maintained a private law practice for over 30 years. She is a graduate of UNC Greensboro and Campbell University School of Law.
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