The North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission: Its Origins and Current Work

In 1971, the Courts Commission made a report to the North Carolina General Assembly in which it recommended adoption of a constitutional amendment that would allow for a “workable method for censuring and removing unworthy or disabled judges in North Carolina.” See Report of the Courts Commission to the North Carolina General Assembly, at 26 (1971) (hereinafter “Report”). At that time, the North Carolina Constitution set forth two methods by which a superior court or appellate judge or justice could be removed from office: by impeachment or by joint resolution of the General Assembly based on the judge’s mental or physical incapacity. N.C. Const. Art. IV, Section 17 (1971). There was no process for judicial discipline of such judges short of removal from office. (The 1971 Constitution did permit the General Assembly to provide by general law for the removal of district court judges, who were part of the District Court Division created by that Constitution.) The Courts Commission deemed impeachment “ill-suited” and “ineffective,” and noted that no judge had been removed pursuant to that procedure since 1868 (and perhaps not ever, since before that time judges were selected by joint vote of the members of the General Assembly). Report at 19. It characterized the joint resolution procedure, limited to disability cases, as “even less effective,” stating that it had never been used in North Carolina and that “[i]ts use is so unlikely that it lacks even a deterrent effect.” Id. at 20. The Courts Commission stated that the inadequacy of [...]