North Carolina GOP Judge J. Douglas McCullough has had enough of doing the bidding of a corrupt, GOP-controlled legislature who is attempting to do all it can to make sure that newly-elected Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has no power. So, what did Judge McCulloough do? He resigned. In his seat will be Democratic Judge John Arrowood. Judge McCullough has been on the bench since President Ronald Reagan put him there, but clearly his abrupt decision to leave means that he is one of the few Republicans who still puts country ahead of party.Ever since Governor Cooper took over from the nightmare that was Republican Governor Pat McCrory, the GOP-controlled legislature has been steadily doing all it can to make sure that Gov. Cooper is nothing more than a figurehead. One way in which they were doing that was to try to keep Gov. Cooper from appointing judges, as is his right as governor.In order to circumvent this, the state legislature introduced a bill that would change the number of judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 15 to 12. The bill, House Bill 239, would make sure that Cooper would not get to appoint the replacements for the judges that are approaching the age at which judges in North Carolina are required to retire. Of course, Gov. Cooper vetoed the ridiculous bill, but the Republicans have a veto-proof majority, so they would have just overridden it.Judge McCullough was aware that he would be at the aforementioned required retirement age in just 36 days, so instead of stepping down and going through the formal nomination process on that date, he made sure that Gov. Cooper got his rightful appointment. As an extra thumb at the Republicans, Judge Arrowood also happens to be openly gay   the first openly gay judge on the Court of Appeals.In his very short resignation letter, Judge McCullough explained his actions: I did not want my legacy to be the elimination of a seat and the impairment of a court that I have served on. Thank you, Judge McCullough, for doing the right thing here. Republicans in this nation care only about power and partisanship, not about country. Thank you for being one of the good guys. Maybe a few others will follow in your footsteps and put country first as well.Featured image via The Advocate (Cooper)/Loiacono Literary Agency (McCullough)