GREENSBORO, N.C. (Legal Newsline) A North Carolina Supreme Court justice is claiming she has been a target of the state's Judicial Standards Committee after expressing her free speech regarding the lack of diversity in the North Carolina judicial system.
A North Carolina statute, G.S. § 163-274(a)(9) (the Act), may be unconstitutional because it outlaws any derogatory comment “made in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.” Such a comment may be true, and the First Amendment does not permit outlawing truthful speech. Moreover, under the Act, speakers may lie with impunity about others but .