The North Carolina Supreme Court will hear a case Thursday involving false claims of voter fraud in the 2016 race for governor.
Republican Pat McCrory lost a tight race for re-election to Democrat Roy Cooper.
While McCrory didn't concede right away, it was a group called the Pat McCrory Committee Legal Defense Fund backed by out-of-state lawyers who enlisted local North Carolina voters to lodge election protests across the state. Their claims of fraud like double voting against duly registered North Carolina voters turned out to be false.
The state Court of Appeals ruled in 2021 the lawyers and committee behind the false claims were not immune from defamation lawsuits. That question will now go before the state's conservative majority Supreme Court.
The tribunal will not include the court's two liberal justices, who recused themselves because they previously represented the falsely accused voters.