UNC law professor Gene Nichol on an ideological shift at the state Supreme Court

News & Views

Gene Nichol (File photo)

In recent years, the North Carolina Supreme Court has undergone a radical transformation. Since Republican justices assumed control of the court after the 2022 election, they have moved swiftly – not merely to chart a more conservative path, but to quite literally redefine the court’s role in state government.

And as Gene Nichol, a veteran law professor and constitutional scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill details in a new law review article, nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the realm of voting and elections, where in a trio of rulings, the court effectively decreed that the legislature is free to gerrymander electoral districts and erect obstacles to voting for disfavored groups to its heart’s content. And recently, NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with Prof. Nichol to learn more about this shift and what it means for our state.