NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs Breaches Judicial Ethics

I was watching the ballgame last night, and I saw this ad (or something very similar to it) air repeatedly:

There are at least a couple of problems with this ad. Make note of the fact that it telegraphs to the voters how she would rule on matters related to life and abortion. There are at least three ways she violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct:

The first problem is that it violates the longstanding judicial ethical principle of impartiality. She makes it very clear that she is biased on this topic.

The second issue is that she is effectively commenting on and communicating to voters how she would rule on matters that are currently before the state and federal courts. She is not supposed to do that based on ethical principles.

The third issue is that she compromises the courts’ integrity when she does the above things in a manner that diminishes the public’s confidence in the courts’ impartiality.

State law says that judges cannot engage in “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute”. 

She needs to be removed from the bench, and also disqualified from holding the office of judge.