Billy Corriher: The N.C. Supreme Court’s Duke Energy ruling made all of us poorer — and may enrich the Chief Justice

Conflict of interest rules for the judiciary should have prevented N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby from ruling on Duke Energy’s rate hike, the author writes.

Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

By Billy Corriher

Beacon Media

In late May, the North Carolina Supreme Court approved Duke Energy’s drastic 2023 price increases. The court rejected arguments from N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson and others that the price increase was illegal and would harm Duke’s customers.

The ruling ensured that Duke was able to dip even further into ordinary North Carolinians’ pockets. And because it helps Duke Energy’s bottom line, that means it could make Chief Justice Paul Newby’s family richer. His wife, Macon Newby, owns at least $10,000 (it could be much more; the state doesn’t require officials to tell us) in Duke Energy stock, according to his mandatory 2026 ethics disclosure.

Yet, Newby didn’t recuse himself. It was just the latest example of corruption from the person at the top of North Carolina’s judiciary. The court approved the rate hike by a wide margin, so Newby could have sat out the case and gotten the same result. But it seems Newby prefers to shove his conflict of interest in our faces. The chief has now ruled in the company’s favor at least seven times since 2015. (Editor’s Note: Beacon Media reached out for comment from Newby or the N.C. Supreme Court and has not received a reply.)

North Carolina’s Code of Judicial Conduct says judges must avoid financial dealings that exploit their position or make them appear biased. The rules also state that “a judge should manage his/her investments … to minimize the number of cases in which the judge is disqualified.”

When the Center for Public Integrity wrote about Newby’s conflict in 2023, Gabe Roth of the judicial transparency group Fix the Court said, “Owning even one share of stock brings in that doubt that the judge might be biased.” The ethics rules say that if a party requests it, “a judge should disqualify himself/herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality may reasonably be questioned,” including when a family member has a financial interest.

In the most recent Duke Energy case, Attorney General Jackson argued that the N.C. The Utilities Commission should never have approved the price increase. The commission’s job is to get the best possible deal for us, Duke Energy’s customers.

Instead, the commission approved an even steeper increase for Duke Energy Carolinas—which serves the Western half of the state and the Triangle—than it did for Duke Energy Progress customers in the East. In her dissent on that case, Justice Anita Earls said the court should have overturned the commission’s decision because of this disparate treatment. She pointed out that, collectively, Duke Energy Carolinas customers will pay $129 million more than the company’s other customers.

People across the state asked the commission not to approve the increases, which Earls noted will benefit Duke’s shareholders. She calculated that about one-fifth of a typical residential customer’s monthly bill would go to pay shareholders.

“The record is replete with evidence that rising energy costs are hurting North Carolina consumers,” Earls wrote. “Yet Duke Energy seeks to increase rates while it posts record profits.”

The cost of just about everything is rising fast, but Duke Energy is the only big company in the state that has had to get the courts to sign off on its price increases. It’s clear that either Newby’s family should divest themselves of Duke Energy stock, or he should sit out cases involving the company.

Newby, however, has a history of ignoring ethics rules. In 2021, he wrote a ruling in favor of an adoption agency that he helped found. He has flagrantly violated rules prohibiting campaign contributions and other political activity. In 2022, he pushed out the head of the Judicial Standards Commission after she cracked down on such political activities.

The chief justice has worked with Republican legislators to transform the judiciary and give himself more power. He has used this power to institute a clear double standard on ethics. Newby has tried to sanction his Democratic colleagues while letting Republican judges off the hook. A 2024 ProPublica story revealed that the state Supreme Court refused to sanction two Republican judges who admitted to violating ethics rules. They admitted it!

State Rep. Marcia Morey, a Democrat and former judge, has cosponsored two constitutional amendments that would reform judicial ethics and clean up the mess Newby has created. They would make recusal rules mandatory and reform the judicial ethics enforcement process, if they can get on the ballot one day.

With his final term ending in 2028, Newby apparently no longer feels the need to appear impartial. Again and again, he puts his own interests and those of corporations over workers and consumers. North Carolina is poorer for it.

Billy Corriher is the State Courts Manager at People’s Parity Project Action. His new book is “Justice for the People - The Anita Earls Story.”

This column is syndicated by Beacon Media and is available to republish for free on all platforms under Beacon Media’s guidelines.