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Try CasePortal for FreeJ. Osteen denies North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls’ motion for preliminary injunction following a proposed investigation by the state’s judicial standards commission of some of Earls’ public comments. Earls, the sole Black woman on the state supreme court, has publicly claimed that the court lacks racial diversity and harbors implicit bias, and that she has the First Amendment right to make such statements. She argues that an investigation would infringe upon this right. However, according to the commission, Earls’ comments potentially violate a code of judicial conduct wherein judges should not make such public comments about each other because this can undermine public confidence in the court. The state court acted first, which could mean abstention doctrine would at least temporarily stop an injunction from proceeding. But, in this case, Earls has failed to establish a probability of success on the merits based on her potential violation of the code of conduct, so her motion must be denied.