On April 2, the Fourth Circuit issued this opinion in North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, 18-1150. The North Carolina legislature last year cancelled primaries for 2018 partisan judicial elections, and said all candidates for judge would only run in November. The Democratic Party sued last year, and won an injunction in U.S. District Court early this year, saying the suspension of judicial primaries for statewide judicial races likely violated the U.S. Constitution. But on February 9, 2018, the Fourth Circuit stayed that order. The Fourth Circuit has now explained why it did so.

The Fourth Circuit feels that the state has an interest in consistency, and that because there were not going to be primaries for local judicial races, it would confuse the voters if there were primaries for statewide judicial elections. The vote for the April 2 opinion is 3-0, whereas on February 9 it had been 2-1. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, who changed her vote, explained in the April 2 opinion why she changed her mind. Back in February the only individuals defending the 2017 state law were state legislative leaders, but later, the state itself had associated itself with the arguments of the legislative leaders, and that made a difference to Judge Motz. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.