paul newby

August 26, 2020 - Southern states are holding judicial elections this year that will shape the outcome of critical cases involving voting rights and criminal justice. The elections could also bring unprecedented diversity to courts in some states.

May 4, 2020 - The decision is the first time the court has ruled against prosecutors on a claim of discrimination against black jurors. The court's only Republican justice dissented.

October 19, 2018 - A new ad from Republican Justice Barbara Jackson raises ethical questions due to its partisan tone and stoking of conservative voters' fears about immigrants. Jackson has also shared alt-right followers' tweets and raised First Amendment concerns by blocking a Twitter follower for pointing out that she was retweeting a racist account.

October 11, 2018 - The same secret-money group that pushed the U.S Senate to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh is dominating spending in judicial elections in Arkansas and elsewhere in the South. In some states, justices are looking to be re-elected with the help of campaign cash from corporations and law firms that have business before the courts.

November 4, 2016 - GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch, their petrochemical company and its PAC are pouring money into North Carolina to influence state elections for governor, legislature, Supreme Court and attorney general.

February 12, 2016 - The court battle over North Carolina's congressional and legislative districts highlights the role of well-funded interests in shaping political maps. A Washington, D.C.-based super PAC not only helped draw up the congressional districts that were recently ruled unconstitutional, but also helped elect legislators and an N.C. Supreme Court justice who approved the maps.

October 17, 2014 - In the first election since the end of North Carolina's judicial public financing program, Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates have raised nearly three times the amount of individual contributions as they had in recent elections -- and much of that money is coming from those with matters before the courts.

September 11, 2014 - A Facing South analysis finds that candidates for the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are set to spend record sums on campaign ads in the coming weeks. The election will be the first in a decade without the state's public financing program for judges, and special-interest money is pouring in.

September 5, 2014 - Two election cycles after the landmark Supreme Court decision loosening restrictions on corporate money in politics, research is emerging that assesses its impact on our political system -- and it finds that the decision has disproportionately benefited Republicans, especially in North Carolina and Tennessee.