What checks or balances?

Whatever happened to the checks and balances James Madison and the framers inserted in our U.S. Constitution? They don’t seem to be working either at the national or state levels.

Faced with what a growing plurality believe is an out-of-control president we traditionally would have expected the Congress to check Trump, but Congress is more of a lap dog than a watch dog. It has fewer accomplishments than any since Harry Truman dubbed the 80^th session the “do nothing Congress.”

But the framers built in another safety valve to provide checks on excesses in power - the judicial branch. Many lower federal courts have handed Trump reversals on some of his most obscene policies, tariffs and proclamations, however the Roberts U.S. Supreme Court is the most partisan and political of any seen since FDR battled with the Supremes as he attempted to implement his New Deal programs.

Roosevelt complained that justices had no accountability to anyone since they were appointed for life. Four of them were old, he complained, and wouldn’t step aside. The president tried to get Congress to pass a law that would expand the number of justices from nine to fifteen, giving him the opportunity to appoint a new majority. It failed to gain enough support to pass and hasn’t been seriously contemplated since.

But juridical reform of the Supreme Court is now gaining some traction, initially because of the lack of accountability and the questionable ethics practiced by at least two who failed to disclose luxury travel, gifts from wealthy donors and potential conflicts of interest. Others cite the lack of independence displayed and the consistent partisan voting and rulings from the court. This court, has essentially decreed the president is above the law and issued partisan rulings on issues like gerrymandering, voting rights, and abortion, among others. A cry for judicial term limits is being heard. Right now, it hasn’t reached the stage of a mandate.

But it prompts us to question whether checks and balances are performing well in North Carolina. Unquestionably, they are not

Our state has had arguably the weakest governor of any in the nation, but recent Republican controlled legislatures have pointedly and deliberately taken steps to make our governor’s authority even weaker over the past seven years, simply because our chief executive has been a Democrat. Lawmakers don’t want to be checked and balance is not even on their agenda.

How about the third branch of government, our judicial system? Again, we must shout a resounding NO.

North Carolina, like 38 other states has chosen to elect our judges. Large numbers believe that if the judge must stand for re-election by the people over whom he or she is judging it doesn’t serve justice well. But the matter becomes even more egregious since the legislature required that all judicial candidates must list their political party affiliation on the ballot.

This was done for two reasons. First, Republicans complained few in their party were being elected to the bench. Let’s be clear: Voters do not know judicial candidates for whom they are voting. Republicans acknowledge that while true, voters should at least know the candidate’s political affiliation. After all, Republicans tout themselves as the law and order party. Guess what? We now have a slew of Republican judges. Voters still don’t know anything about them save their political affiliation.

But people don’t want Republican judges or Democratic Judges. In September of 2025 of a public opinion poll conducted by Opinion Diagnostics found that 87 percent of voters want judges to decide cases independently, based on the Constitution and the law – even if their decision differs from the voter’s own political party or the views of the political party they represent.

How about our Supreme Court? That same poll revealed that North Carolina voters, by a 38% to 32% margin held a negative opinion about our Supreme Court, with 29% unsure.

The Newby Court has become a rubber stamp for our Republican controlled legislature with a clear record favoring Republicans. For example, the Supremes ruled that North Carolinians cannot challenge voting districts in court on the basis of partisan gerrymandering, a ruling that ignored legal precedent. 78% of those polled disagreed with that ruling, saying partisan gerrymandering should be illegal. 82% further said that the court should protect against racial discrimination when drawing voting maps. Who is checking and challenging those rulings?

As we prepared to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration and founding of this nation it would behoove us to also revisit those founding principles that made us great. A good place to begin would be to determine how we can return to being a nation where one branch of government can be checked and balanced by another.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@ncspin.com