NC Chief Justice Paul Newby assigns former classmate to oversee Leandro school funding case

North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby has once again let partisanship and personal relationships determine who gets assigned to cases.

The latest update in the long-running Leandro Plan public education funding case has come about thanks to another glaring example of nepotism from the chief justice.

Earlier this month, Newby assigned Cumberland County Superior Court Judge James Ammons to oversee the 29-year-old case. Ammons, like Michael Robinson, the previous judge on the case, was a UNC Law classmate of Newby’s.

According to WRAL, Ammons has faced “rare disciplinary actions on the bench” and was censured by the state Supreme Court in 1996. 

For more than two decades, despite the state Supreme Court’s ruling, the state has failed to adequately fund public education to ensure every student has access to a sound, basic education.

A hearing with Ammons presiding has yet to be scheduled.

The new makeup of the state Supreme Court, which has gone from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority, could come to a far different conclusion regarding the case as compared to the court’s previous rulings supporting the Leandro Plan.