judicial elections

July 14, 2017 - Eight justices who had previously dismissed a challenge to same-sex spousal benefits recently changed their minds. Some have argued they were riding a change in political tides, but there may be more to the story than a nationwide conservative swing.

October 27, 2016 - A handful of outside political spending groups have invested more than $2 million in a North Carolina Supreme Court race that will determine the court's ideological balance. Business interests are backing incumbent Republican Justice Bob Edmunds, while liberal groups are lining up behind Democratic challenger Mike Morgan.

June 3, 2016 - After North Carolina lawmakers' attempt to help the reelection of a conservative state Supreme Court justice failed, a business group has spent nearly half a million dollars backing his campaign in hopes of preserving the court's conservative majority.

May 13, 2016 - Despite a public financing program and an election recently changed to be nonpartisan, West Virginia's recent state Supreme Court race was flooded with outside money. Independent groups spent over $3.5 million, and the biggest beneficiary won by a landslide.

March 4, 2016 - Republican-led legislatures in several Southern states are trying to increase conservative control of their high courts in hopes the justices will uphold their legislation while outside political groups are spending millions to help conservatives reach the bench.

October 30, 2015 - With the rising flood of campaign cash in state supreme court elections, incumbent judges of color are having a harder time winning re-election than white incumbents, a new study finds. How bad is the problem, and what's the solution?

May 21, 2015 - Nine states, four of them in the South, hold judicial elections but don't ban judges from seeking campaign cash from people that could appear before them. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Florida case upholding such bans, judicial watchdogs are working to change the law in these outlier states.

January 16, 2015 - Next week the U.S. celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It also marks the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended campaign spending limits -- and the two occasions are more closely linked than many realize.

November 20, 2014 - A study by the Center for American Progress looked at the success rates of law firms arguing cases before North Carolina's highest court and compared them to the firms' contributions to justices' campaigns. The findings underscore concerns about impartiality in a court system flooded in political money since the end of the state's public financing program for judicial races.