Judge Tom Murry donated $5,000 to Griffin’s legal fund. Murry is on the court preparing to hear this case.
RALEIGH, N.C. โ The still undecided North Carolina Supreme Court case is inching closer to a resolution this week, with both Justice Allison Riggs and Judge Jefferson Griffin submitting their briefs to the state Court of Appeals.
Griffin, who is challenging Riggs’ narrow win after two recounts, is expected to submit a response until Monday. Then, the Court says it will move to a hearing quickly.ย
“They have not said exactly what ‘expeditiously’ means,” said attorney Anne Tindall. “We’re still waiting to know when that hearing will happen, but likely sometime next week.”
Anne Tindall is withย Protect Democracy and has represented the League of Women Voters and individual voters targeted by the challenge. Griffin, the GOP candidate, is trying to invalidate 60,000 North Carolina ballots cast during the November elections, targeting some mail-in and early voters, claiming incomplete registrations.
However, after multiple briefs filed in both state and federal courts, WCNC Charlotte started receiving questions about who is paying for these legal fees:
“Who is paying the bill for the appeals filed by Griffin? Also, are court cases not being dealt with or sitting idle, until these appeals are over? If so, whatโs the price associated with that?โ wrote one viewer.
Riggs is currently sitting on the State Supreme Court and has recused herself from anything related to this case. If it goes to the state’s high court, her absence would leave them with an even number, leaving room for a potential tie. However, she is still able to participate in other cases.
In terms of legal fees, both Griffinย and Riggsย have set up legal funds. These are publicly accessible on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.
According to Tindall and Common Cause NC attorney Ann Webb, the answer isn’t so simple.
“Some information has been made available, and some hasn’t,” Webb said. “What we really wish is that there were more regular and transparent reports coming in about all of the funding that is coming to Jefferson Griffin’s campaign.”
In Griffin’s legal fund, one of the donors is on the state Court of Appeals preparing to hear this case. Judge Tom Murry donated $5,000 in December.
Both attorneys say there’s no rule against this, but also say there are questions about if there should be.
While Griffin, who also serves on the Court of Appeals, has said he will not participate in this litigation, Murry has not made such a statement. Riggs’ legal team has filed a motion requesting Murry to recuse himself.
“One might hope that if Judge Griffin has decided that he should not participate in any consideration of his arguments, perhaps Judge Murry shouldn’t participate in deciding whether his investment in the lawyers arguing before him was a good one,” Tindall said.
Of the 15 judges on the Court of Appeals, three will hear this case. However, it will likely not be announced who is assigned until the day of the hearing, meaning one of them could be Murry.
“Court of Appeals in North Carolina is a bit of a black box. Its procedures are not entirely clear, and there’s a lot of discretion for the court in how it organizes its affairs,” Tindall said. “The court doesn’t have to say whether Judge Murry or Judge Griffin was originally assigned the panel and then they decided to recuse, or whether a different collection of three judges was assigned to begin with.”
Both attorneys shared concerns about what this litigation and internal support could do to the public’s faith in the courts.
“There’s a whole other question here about the ethics of providing that kind of support and what does that do to public perception of our courts,” Webb said.
WCNC Charlotte reached out to Judge Murry’s team for comment and will update this story if there is a response.
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