After my July 17 call and follow up email with the General Assembly’s House Oversight Committee went nowhere, I followed up in writing to every committee member—making it clear I will no longer participate in unscheduled, unrecorded calls. Legislative attorney Wes Jones had already admitted it’s “well known among attorneys” that clerks in the North Carolina Court of Appeals issue dispositive orders, including dismissals, yet the Committee has done nothing. I demanded they cite the legal authority for allowing clerks to decide cases, conceal judicial names, and impose unauthorized fees—or their silence would be treated as deliberate indifference.
My review of appellate records shows that in 2023, about 7% of dispositive orders named judges, with at least one example in 2024, but after the last election the language shifted to “By order of the Court sitting as a three-judge panel” while omitting all names. More than 50% of dismissals in 2023 and 2024 targeted pro se litigants, and 2025 is on track to match it.
I told them I plan to contact those litigants—about 30 cases so far—to make sure they know they may have civil rights claims. I also warned that suppressing my efforts will only make me more determined, reminding them that North Carolina’s history of forced sterilization shows exactly how dangerous unchecked state power can be when “policy” replaces the rule of law.