{"id":96302,"date":"2022-05-16T17:11:16","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T17:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=96302"},"modified":"2022-05-16T17:11:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T17:11:19","slug":"no-columnist-blasts-the-blatant-and-inappropriate-partisanship-of-nc-justice-phil-berger-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=96302","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;N&#038;O columnist blasts the blatant and inappropriate partisanship of [NC] Justice Phil Berger Jr.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pulse.ncpolicywatch.org\/2022\/05\/12\/no-columnist-blasts-the-blatant-and-inappropriate-partisanship-of-justice-phil-berger-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\">NC Policy Watch<\/a>: &#8220;In case you missed it, be sure to check out this morning\u2019s on-the-mark column by veteran journalist and\u00a0<em>News &amp; Observer<\/em>\u00a0columnist Ned Barnett:\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/opinion\/article261319672.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cNC Supreme Court justice criticizes a fellow GOP judge for not weighing party in hiring.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0As Barnett explains in sobering detail, the ongoing descent of North Carolina\u2019s judiciary into blatant and inappropriate partisanship continues apace, thanks in no small measure to the \u201cleadership\u201d of a judge who\u2019s seldom, if ever, pretended to be anything other than a political creature: Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger, Jr. \u2014 the son of state Senate President\u00a0<em>Pro Tem<\/em>\u00a0Phil Berger, Sr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Barnett explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The Republican justice and son of the Republican leader of the state Senate recently suggested that the appellate courts should be a kind of Tammany Hall, where jobs are awarded and judicial candidates are selected based not on qualifications, but party loyalty.<\/p><p>Responding to an individual\u2019s Facebook query to him about the Republican Court of Appeals primary between chief Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud and District Court Judge Beth Freshwater Smith, Berger explained why he is supporting Stroud\u2019s challenger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, Barnett notes,&nbsp; Berger touted several predictable attributes related to being a \u201csolid conservative.\u201d Then, however, Junior quickly got down to what he thinks should really make the difference in such matters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Stroud had hired the \u201cdems candidate\u201d for clerk of the Court of Appeals and \u201cshut out qualified Republicans, including one of my former clerks, who also worked with 2 other GOP judges.\u201d<\/p><p>\u2026Berger blamed Stroud for the miscarriage of patronage. \u201cDonna whipped the votes and shut out qualified GOP candidates. Some who worked for years in GOP politics,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>In other words: A Republican chief judge didn\u2019t weigh party affiliation in hiring for a nonpartisan administrative post. Throw her out.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NC Policy Watch: &#8220;In case you missed it, be sure to check out this morning\u2019s on-the-mark column by veteran journalist and\u00a0News &amp; Observer\u00a0columnist Ned Barnett:\u00a0\u201cNC Supreme Court justice criticizes a fellow GOP judge for not weighing party in hiring.\u201d\u00a0As Barnett explains in sobering detail, the ongoing descent of North Carolina\u2019s judiciary into blatant and inappropriate&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsstory"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96303,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96302\/revisions\/96303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}