During a Timely Topics panel at Meredith College on Oct. 16, a judge, a former judge, and a leader of a statewide pro-democracy coalition shared their insights about the about the importance of a fair and impartial judiciary and how judicial candidates navigate the elections process in North Carolina.
ABOVE: Price Kromm, Inman, and Stroud at our Timely Topics event. Catherine Davis Photography
The discussion was moderated by Meredith College Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Whitney Ross Manzo and Meredith student (and LWV-Wake member) Lily Barnett.
The League of Women Voters of North Carolina and LWV-Wake partnered on the event. We highly encourage to watch the recording of the panel discussion before you vote in the fall 2024 election!
Two fantastic resources – whyjudgesmatternc.com and VOTE411.org – can help you get ready to vote in the coming days.
LWV-Wake President Helen Zimmerman talks about the features of the League's non-partisan online voter guide, VOTE411.org. Catherine Davis Photography
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Judge Donna Stroud is the senior judge of the 15 judges on the North Court of Appeals, having served since 2007. From 2021 to 2023, she served as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. After serving in private practice, in 2004, she was elected as a district court judge in Wake County, where she served until her election to the Court of Appeals in 2006. While on the district court, Stroud served as a family court judge. Stroud has been an adjunct professor at Campbell Law School since 2008 and currently teaches Judicial Process.
During 18-plus years of service on the N.C. Court of Appeals, Stroud has written over 1,300 judicial opinions and has served on a three-judge panel in over 3,900 cases.
Lucy Inman served North Carolina for more than a dozen years as a trial and appellate judge. From 2010 through 2014, she served as a special superior court judge after being appointed by Governor Beverly Perdue. From 2015 through 2022, after winning a statewide non-partisan judicial election, she served on the N.C. Court of Appeals. Inman left the bench and returned to practicing law after losing a statewide partisan judicial election in 2022.
Before joining the bench, Inman practiced complex civil litigation for 18 years, first in California and then in North Carolina. She now focuses her practice on appeals. Inman serves on the Judicial Independence Committee of the National Association of Women Judges and is a member of the Professionalism Committee of the Section of Litigation and the Council of Appellate Lawyers within the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division.
Melissa Price Kromm is the executive director of North Carolina For the People and N.C. For the People Action, where she has served as the leader of the statewide pro-democracy coalition for the past 14 years. The coalition coordinates advocacy in structural democracy, voting rights, campaign finance reform, government ethics, and transparency, redistricting reform, judicial independence, the right to protest, and election crisis prevention.
Price Kromm led efforts to pass campaign finance disclosure reform, voting rights reform, and stop attacks on judicial independence. Recently, Price Kromm led the coalition to stop bills promoting campaign finance secrecy, attacking the freedom to vote, limiting the right to protest, and spearheaded pioneering legislation to prevent election subversion.
Before joining, Price Kromm was part of a successful effort to pass same-day voter registration at early voting sites in North Carolina and pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS TIMELY TOPICS
2024 STAKES
Every N.C. ballot this fall features four statewide judicial races: one N.C. Supreme Court race and three Court of Appeals races. All candidates have filled out their candidate questionnaires for VOTE411.org – see what they have submitted in their own words! Additionally, each voter should look up their sample ballot to see other judicial races, such as district court elections, depending on where they live.
The N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals judges have eight-year terms, so the stakes for each one of these contests are high.
Since 2018, judicial races in North Carolina have been partisan. Right now, the N.C. Supreme Court has a 5-2 Republican majority, and the N.C. Court of Appeals has an 11-4 Republican majority.
VOTING THE FULL BALLOT IS KEY
Not everyone participates in our judicial races – even if they are active voters! In 2020, North Carolina elected its Supreme Court Chief Justice. That race was decided by 401 votes out of 5.4 million votes cast that year. More than 150,000 N.C. voters participated in that election but skipped that race. So voting the full ballot and spreading the word about voting the full ballot is crucial.
DEFINING JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE
We previously had non-partisan judicial elections in N.C. – as well as public financing for these races. “It was possible for someone who did not have access to a lot of money to be able to get financing to run for office,” Inman said. “That really leveled the economic playing field for people who wanted to run.”
Price Kromm said having public financing was a method considered to be “the crown jewel.” She said it was unfortunate that our N.C. legislators eliminated this over a decade ago.
“That has severely impacted our judicial independence and the integrity of our courts,” Price Kromm said.
Inman defines judicial independence as “a judge who is trying to get to the truth. … It really means deciding each case based on the facts, based on the judge’s best ability to understand what the governing law is, without fear of retribution from anyone and without favor to anyone.”
Stroud defined it as “deciding cases based on the law, fairly.” She added that it’s crucial that each branch of our government “stays in its lane.”
HOW THE COURTS AFFECT THE LIVES OF EVERYDAY CITIZENS
Stroud pointed out that a lot of people don’t realize that the judicial branch is the branch with the most elected officials. This includes local judges, district court judges, superior court judges, appellate judges, and clerks of court. “There are a lot of courts, and we make a lot of decisions that are affecting people’s everyday lives,” she said. She added that the Court of Appeals is an error-correcting court, working to make sure there is a uniform interpretation of the law across the state.
Inman noted that so many people interact with the court system because of traffic citations, divorce, adoption, disputes with landlord or employers, and other “very vulnerable situations.” She added that it’s vital that the judge is someone you can trust.
Inman said most people don’t think about how much power a trial judge has. “They find facts. They make decisions that are very difficult to overturn on appeal,” she said. “And that’s because they were there. They heard the evidence. The appellate courts don’t just overturn cases easily.”
Inman argued that courts play a role in voting rights, the amount of your utility bill, reproductive rights, the right to marry who you want, and more.
“State courts … have a key role in protecting our individual rights and freedoms … even more so now that the U.S. Supreme Court is kicking everything from abortion access to redistricting down to the state courts,” said Price Kromm. “In fact, 95 percent of all cases go through our state courts. State courts have the power to change lives.”
A PRIMER ON OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM
In North Carolina, there are two levels of trial court – district courts and superior courts. District courts handle smaller cases – family law, traffic violations, cases involving property of low value. Superior Courts handle criminal activities and cases involving larger property values. Above that, we have two appellate courts – the Court of Appeals and the State Supreme Court. The State Supreme Court can ultimately hear any case, as the highest court in the state.
