State supreme courts have a dramatic impact on politics and policy, and this year, we have an extraordinary chance to impact two different high courts in two key states. Daily Kos is pleased to endorse state Supreme Court candidates Sam Bagenstos in Michigan and Anita Earls in North Carolina, both of whom are widely respected civil rights lawyers who’ve been endorsed by their state’s Democratic Parties.
We recently saw what a progressive supreme court can do at the state level: Earlier this year in Pennsylvania, the majority on the state’s highest court delivered a landmark ruling that invalidated the GOP’s congressional gerrymander and replaced it with a map that’s fair to both parties—the first time any such gerrymander had ever been struck down by the courts.
And we also saw just last week what a conservative supreme court can do at the federal level, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to police partisan gerrymandering. Indeed, as federal courts fill up with Trump appointees, state courts are becoming the last line of defense on matters ranging from civil rights to voting rights to workers’ rights. But in states that elect their judges, we can impact who sits on the bench and help ensure fair decisions on all of these major issues and more for years to come.
In both Michigan and North Carolina, the courts there are poised to determine the future of a vast array of disputes, and that includes gerrymandering. Both states have congressional maps that are just as bad as Pennsylvania’s was: In Michigan, Republicans hold nine congressional districts while Democrats hold just five, and in North Carolina, the margin is 10-to-three in favor of the GOP, even though Michigan leans blue and North Carolina is a swing state.
There’s no reason to think that the conservatives on the Supreme Courts in either Michigan or North Carolina have any interest in following Pennsylvania’s lead and rectifying this injustice. But by electing more progressives like Sam Bagenstos and Anita Earls to state Supreme Courts, we can encourage a brand of justice that helps move these states forward toward greater fairness, with deeper consideration for the less fortunate.
Just two months ago, progressives celebrated a major judicial victory in Wisconsin as Rebecca Dallet secured a 10-year term on that state’s highest court and positioned Democrats to end conservatives’ majority in the coming years. Now we can do the same elsewhere.
Contribute $3 today to help elect Sam Bagenstos and Anita Earls—and strengthen progressive voices on two crucial state Supreme Courts!