On December 27, the North Carolina Democratic Party asked a U.S. District Court Judge not to grant more time for the defendants to respond in North Carolina Democratic Party v Berger, m.d., 1:17cv-1113. This is the lawsuit on whether the state violated the U.S. Constitution earlier this year when it abolished primaries for judicial offices in the 2018 election.
However, later on December 27, the Judge did grant more time for the defendants to respond. The briefs in the case are now due by January 17. It is conceivable that by then, the law will have been amended anyway. The legislature convenes on January 10 and because the Defendants are the leaders of each house of the legislature, they probably have the power to change the law quickly.
The reason the legislature eliminated the segregated partisan primary, was that they were updating the judicial district boundaries, but couldn’t come to an agreement as to the new boundaries. The filing deadline for the May 8 primary is February 28, and they were concerned that if new judicial boundaries came into place in January, that there wouldn’t be time for judicial candidates to react. You will recall that the elimination of the judicial primary was inserted into the ballot access bill, and was the rationalization given by Roy Cooper for the veto of that bill.
The senate redistricting committee has been holding hearings on the judicial districts (the next hearing is January 3). It may take extra effort to get agreement on districts, since Cooper will probably veto any measure. There also suggestions that the legislature will put a proposition on the May ballot to eliminate judicial elections.
The federal district court will probably issue their decision on legislative districts in January, which the state will appeal, and this could mess up the primary schedule for legislative elections as well.