HEY JUDGE GRIFFIN. CUT THE CRAP!
by Cash Michaels
You know, the NC Democratic Party (NCDP) doesn’t exactly have a great reputation for standing four-square when it comes to a fight. I mean, every time you look, it seems like those master schemers over at the NC Republican Party (NCGOP) always have the NC Dems’ number.
When it comes to redistricting, provided Republicans can find a judge that agrees with them, they rock. Elections? (Class, please refer in your text to the earlier chapter, “JUDGES WHO ALLOWED THE NC GOP TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER FOR YEARS WHEN IT COMES TO REDRAWING VOTING DISTRICTS TO MAINTAIN A MAJORITY IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE FOREVER AND EVER.”
My point is the source of Republican legislative power since 2011 has been its ability to find judges, both state and federal, who agree with their slimy schemes, and sign off on them. Admittedly not every judge has done this, but enough have to help maintain the GOP majorities in the state House and Senate, and allow Phil Berger to sleep easier at night when it comes to judicial decisions.
But hey, all of a sudden, NC Dems have come alive, especially after coming off of a 2024 election that was better results-wise than most other states.
One of the bright spots of the 2024 election was the race between Democratic NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, and Republican state Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin for Justice Riggs’ high court seat.
Justice Riggs is one of only two Democrats on the state Supreme Court, so holding onto her seat is important to Democrats to say the least.
In an extremely close race, Justice Riggs was re-elected by slim margin, and after a recount, her winning numbers held.
Griffin demanded and got a second partial recount, with the results even better for Justice Riggs. The poor woman is running out of paper to print victory speeches on. But it’s clear that Griffin had no plans to abide by what even a second recount revealed.
To top everything, the conservative judge and NC GOP were challenging 60,000 ballots out of the 5.5 million that were cast, seeking to have them thrown out, based on some obscure legal premise that no longer applies because the state Board of Elections ruled against it accordingly earlier this year, backed up by several federal judges.
And get this…The News and Observer of Raleigh reported that Griffin and the NC GOP were targeting Black voters in particular who supported Justice Riggs. All of a sudden, that high and mighty judicial veneer has a terrible kick to the respectability groin. Never put it past a conservative Republican to play the race card when desperation measures are called for.
Well last Friday the NCDP filed a federal lawsuit “…seeking to invalidate Republicans’ challenge of over 60,000 ballots cast in the state Supreme Court election.”
“No North Carolinian deserves to have their vote thrown out in a callous power grab — but this is no surprise from the party of insurrectionists,” NCDP Chair Anderson Clayton said in a press release. “We are prepared to take on Republicans. They can’t stop the results of an election just because they don’t like the fact that we won.”
Here-here! As they used to say on the block I grew up on in Brooklyn, “Don’t start none, won’t be none” This B.S. about depriving 60,000 North Carolinians their votes, or even 60, just because some right-wing Republican judge wants to ham-glam with the high-rent Republican majority on the state Supreme Court is everything it looks like - desperation of the highest order.
Judge Griffin apparently thinks that just because he’s a member of the Grand Old Party, he’s entitled to win every election he runs in. Sounds like another well-known Republican we can’t stand whose name rhymes with chump. Except in our case, we have supposedly an esteemed member of the judicial branch, someone who lives by the Canons of prescribed good judicial behavior, acting like a two-bit insurrectionist.
Well the Democrat-led state Elections Board wasn’t going for it when they heard the case last Wednesday. Said SBOE Chairman Alan Hirsh, "The idea that someone could have been registered to vote, came to vote — and then had their vote discarded — is anathema to the democratic system and simply cannot be tolerated," he said. "And so therefore I'm going to vote to deny the protest."
Give it up Judge Griffin. Yeah, cut the crap! This shameful ploy to steal an election you can’t believe you lost has gotten beyond embarrassing. Where’s the honor, Your Honor? Does winning mean that much?
Or does losing crater your obvious shallow ego to such an extent you can’t even walk the streets of Raleigh?
And let’s say this 60,000 vote elimination ploy works later down the line with your disreputable buddies at the state Supreme Court, who apparently have the last word if necessary. Is that how you want to be remembered in the pages of North Carolina history?
If so, let’s start with this page. Judge Jefferson Griffin, you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to steal an election from a fellow member of the judiciary. Clearly you represent the new standard of jurisprudence we’re all waiting on with the new administration in Washington.
Gee, how proud we are!
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