On December 12, the North Carolina Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that it was unconstitutional for the state legislature to eliminate partisan primaries for judicial races. North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, m.d., 1:17cv-1113.

In October 2017, the legislature passed SB 656, which eliminated primaries only in 2018 for judicial elections. Judicial elections in North Carolina are partisan elections. But the bill provides that every individual running for a judicial post will appear on the November ballot, with party labels, but there will not be party nominees. The Complaint alleges that this violates freedom of association for political parties.

The reason the Republican majority in the legislature eliminated primaries for 2018 for judicial office is that the legislature expects to consider redrawing the boundaries of various judicial districts in time for the 2018 election. But because the primary is in May, and filing begins in February, the legislature didn’t expect to have the new districts ready in time for the primary.

The case is assigned to Judge N. Carlton Tilley, a Reagan appointee. Thanks to Brian Irving for this news. UPDATE: here is the Democratic Party’s brief. A weakness in the brief is that it doesn’t discuss either New York State Board of Elections v Lopez-Torres, nor Washington State Grange v Washington State Republican Party. The former decision upheld a New York law that did not permit judicial candidates to directly petition for a place on the primary ballot. The latter one said that Washington state did not necessarily violate a party’s freedom of association by permitting party labels on the ballot even though there were no party nominees.