Abolishing Judgeships: Can They Do That?

One of the livelier issues in last week’s General Assembly was the Senate’s move to abolish 12 of the 15 special superior court judgeships. Senate Bill 10, which would affect important executive branch boards as well, passed the Senate easily and was sent to the House, but questions remain about the authority to cut judges’ terms short. May the General Assembly abolish a judgeship during the middle of a term? The answer is a clear “probably not, but maybe.” Let’s start by recalling what special superior court judgeships are. Article IV, Section 9 of the North Carolina Constitution empowers the General Assembly to divide the state into “a convenient number” of superior court districts and specify the number of judge to be elected in each. These are regular superior court judges who, pursuant to Section 16, are elected by the voters and serve eight-year terms. Section 9(1) also says the legislature “may provide by general law for the selection or appointment of special or emergency Superior Court Judges not selected for a particular judicial district.” The constitution is silent on the terms of special judges and how they are to be chosen. Special judges do not follow the rotation of regular superior court judges between districts for holding court. Specials are assigned on a week-by-week basis to any county in the state as needed to fill in for a sick judge or one who is finishing a case elsewhere; to handle a case when local judges have a conflict; to help [...]