A lawsuit was filed in federal court in August 2005 challenging key provisions of North Carolina’s judicial public financing program. Attorney James Bopp of Indiana, a national opponent of public financing, filed the suit on behalf of the NC Right to Life Committee and candidate-judges Barbara Jackson and Rusty Duke.

In March 2007, a federal District Court judge dismissed the challenge. However, Bopp and his clients appealed the case to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA.

The suit claims many aspects of the NC program are unconstitutional constraints on the rights of Bopp's clients and other appellate judicial candidates, including (a) the reporting requirements for non-participating candidates and independent expenditure committees (IEC), (b) the "rescue" funds provided to publicly financing candidates hit with high-spending opponents or IECs, (c) the program's late-campaign "embargo" on fundraising by privately funded candidates, and (d) the $50 surcharge on State Bar dues to support the program.

The State of North Carolina responded to the complaint with a motion to dismiss the case on several grounds. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University was granted permission to intervene in the case, on behalf of a judicial candidate and a public interest group, and it also filed a motion to dismiss the case.

In his October 2006 order, federal District Court Judge W. Earl Britt found that Bopp and the plaintiffs did not meet the standards needed to gain an injunction against continued operation of the program. In fact, the judge ruled that plaintiff Barbara Jackson lacked standing to even bring the lawsuit, but he accepted the standing of other plaintiffs. He also ruled that the issue of the $50 surcharge belonged in state, not federal, court as a dispute about a tax. He found that the plaintiffs arguments on other issues were weak, and in March 2007, he dismissed the case altogether.

On April 26, 2007, Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. In June 2007, Appellant Barbara Jackson was dismissed from the action, thereby amending the caption to Duke, et al. v. Leake, et al. Arguments on the case at the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals are set for early December 2007.

Read the lawsuit filed by James Bopp, as amended in September 2005.

Read the response filed by the State of North Carolina.

Read the motion to dismiss by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Read the Judges' October 26, 2006 order denying Bopp's motion for injunction.

To view the latest pleadings, including an Amicus Brief submitted on behalf of Democracy North Carolina by attorneys Erin Chemerinsky and Anita Earls, please go the web site of the Brennan Center at:

www.brennancenter.org/stack_detail.asp?key=102&subkey=9457&init_key=82