Slate | April 10, 2026
“In the past several years, Republicans in North Carolina have attempted — with varying degrees of success — power grab after power grab over the state’s government and legal systems. Now they’re trying one of their most audacious endeavors yet — an effort to give politicians control of the body that regulates lawyers’ compliance with ethics rules, a move that would provide them the power to sanction or disbar attorneys they don’t like.
If this proposal becomes law, the same Republicans who have targeted Democratic justices with bogus ethics charges will control the committee that decides when lawyers violate ethics rules. The state’s politicians would exercise unprecedented command over the legal profession, a vast departure from past practice.
Republicans on the committee have hurled accusations of ‘cancel culture’ at the state bar committee that investigates lawyers, but they have steadfastly refused to provide any examples.”