A federal appeals panel exchanged arguments Monday with lawyers over a still-unresolved November election for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat, immersed in jurisdictional questions over which courts should determine whether roughly 66,

Monday’s arguments will center on whether the case should be decided by state or federal courts — a decision which could be crucial in whether the results of the race are ultimately overturned.

A contentious legal battle over whether to seat one of its own members threatens not only the future of the court's ideological balance, but its role in the public sphere