On June 7th, 2022, High Point University announced that Mark Martin, the Republican former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, would be the founding dean of HPU’s new law school. This was a serious error in judgment. Martin played a central role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election by subverting the U.S. Constitution. Through his own outrageous actions, he has demonstrated neither the temperament nor basic personal integrity to be entrusted with guiding legal education. We call upon:

• The President and National Board of Advisors of High Point University to rescind Mark Martin’s appointment; and

• The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to deny accreditation to High Point University School of Law until Martin is no longer involved

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election, as reported in the New York Times, Mark Martin was an early member of the core team of Trump loyalists who designed a radical new legal strategy attempting to overturn the results. Martin’s idea was to permit Republican-held state legislatures to nullify and set aside their states’ popular votes and award their electoral votes to Donald Trump instead.

• When that strategy failed in court, Mark Martin proposed yet another: to grant Vice President Mike Pence the authority to personally reject state returns as he saw fit.
• As reported in the Washington Post, Donald Trump spoke twice on the phone with Mark Martin on the very evening of the January 6th, 2021 attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol about challenging the election results. White House phone logs confirm the same.
• Mark Martin was an early advisor of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election. In his memo outlining a plan to launch a coup, radical right-wing lawyer William Olsen confirmed that Mark Martin “supported filing the case” with the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify electors and override the legal Electoral College outcome.

These actions, and more, are coming to light as the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol continues its investigation. The evidence we now have demonstrate that, at a minimum, Martin was an active participant in the plot to overthrow the 2020 election. One can only speculate what more we will learn.

Mark Martin was an eager and deeply engaged member of a small team of political loyalists who sought to install Trump in power at any cost – including ignoring the United States Constitution.

According to Duke law professor Jim Coleman: “I think it’s quite damaging to have a former chief justice of the NC Supreme Court being associated with these positions. It calls into question how he (Martin) and perhaps others approach the law — not based on principle, but based on the result you want to achieve politically.”

Norm Eisen, expert on law and ethics at the Brookings Institution: “All the lawyers who whipped up Trump’s followers into a frenzy based on the completely baseless belief that the election had been stolen, must bear a share of the responsibility for what happened on January 6.” (See more in the June 30th, 2022 YES Weekly)

Mark Martin’s actions have demonstrated that he cannot, and does not deserve to, be the founding dean of High Point University’s School of Law.

You can communicate your agreement directly to the President of High Point University: nqubein@highpoint.edu. We ask that you please be respectful in asking President Qubein to reconsider Mark Martin’s appointment.

We also recommend you make your displeasure publicly known – particularly to the North Carolina press, social media and friends and family.

High Point University is an important institution and a major asset to not only High Point, but to North Carolina as a whole. It would be a stain on HPU’s reputation for integrity and quality to have a man like Mark Martin in its leadership. We hope they will make the right decision.