CASE SUMMARY

On December 22, 2021, a sitting North Carolina Congressman filed a federal lawsuit against the North Carolina Supreme Court’s and North Carolina Court of Appeals’ judges seeking public disclosure of the judges’ voting records on certain orders issued in redistricting lawsuits, N.C. League of Conservation Voters, Inc. v. Hall and Harper v. Hall. The orders, which suspended candidate filing periods statewide so congressional and legislative map challenges could be resolved first, kept judges’ votes confidential and plaintiff argued he had a right to access those voting records under the 1st Amendment, the North Carolina Constitution, and state laws regulating public and court records. He sought either mandamus or injunctive relief barring the defendants from continuing their confidentiality policies and a declaratory judgment that such policies violated the 1st Amendment.

  • On May 6, 2022, the district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case as barred by sovereign immunity and judicial immunity, in addition to the abstention doctrine which protects state judicial processes from “intrusions” by federal courts.

CASE LIBRARY

U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division - No. 3:21-cv-679