Current:Home > MyNorth Carolina governor appoints Democrat to fill Supreme Court vacancy-InfoLens
North Carolina governor appoints Democrat to fill Supreme Court vacancy
View Date:2024-12-23 11:51:31
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper appointed an appellate judge and longtime voting rights attorney to fill a vacancy on the North Carolina Supreme Court created when one of two Democratic justices stepped down early.
Allison Riggs, a registered Democrat, will replace outgoing Justice Michael Morgan, who resigned last week from the panel where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority. Riggs currently serves on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, a position Cooper appointed her to last December to fill another vacancy.
Riggs, 42, said she is proud to become the youngest woman to serve on the state’s highest court and promised to do all she can to make sure the state’s legal system delivers on its promise of equal justice for all.
“I’m going to continue my humble and diligent approach to my role as a jurist,” she said. “In polarized times, interpreting and applying the law without fear or favor and with a steady hand is more important than ever.”
Riggs will serve out the remainder of Morgan’s term through the end of next year. Her seat on the high court will appear on the ballot in 2024, and she told reporters Monday that she plans to run next year for a full eight-year term. Jefferson Griffin, a Republican serving on the state Court of Appeals, has already announced his candidacy for that seat.
Before she became a judge, Riggs had been heavily involved for more than a decade in litigation to block Republican redistricting maps and laws requiring photo identification to cast ballots. She worked closely with Justice Anita Earls, the only other Democrat on the state’s highest court, at the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice and took over as co-leader of the organization after Earls was elected to the court in 2018.
Riggs argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Texas redistricting case in 2018 and a North Carolina redistricting case in 2019. She received her law degree and two other degrees from the University of Florida.
Cooper said Riggs has “the qualifications, the experience, the integrity and the temperament” needed to succeed in her new role.
He also appointed Carolyn Thompson, a deputy commissioner on the state Industrial Commission and a previous district court and superior court judge, to fill Riggs’s seat on the state Court of Appeals.
“These judges are the right people for these jobs,” Cooper said. “When it comes to matters of great consequence for people’s everyday lives, they have the smart legal minds to do the analysis, consider each case on its own merits and make decisions that follow the law.”
Riggs assured reporters Monday that her history of butting heads with Republican legislators in her previous role as an attorney would not interfere with her judicial responsibilities. She is viewed as a further-left pick than Morgan, her predecessor, who occasionally joined Republicans on opinions about crime issues.
Morgan has declined to outline his future plans but said he still has a desire to make a difference in the Tar Heel state. Had he run for reelection next year, the 67-year-old Democrat from New Bern would have hit the mandatory retirement age for judges halfway through the new term.
He opted instead to give Cooper time to appoint a new justice before the state Supreme Court holds its next oral arguments on Tuesday.
___
Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
veryGood! (813)
Related
- 13 escaped monkeys still on the loose in South Carolina after 30 were recaptured
- Shlomo Perel, a Holocaust survivor who inspired the film 'Europa Europa,' dies at 98
- How Hollywood squeezed out women directors; plus, what's with the rich jerks on TV?
- A project collects the names of those held at Japanese internment camps during WWII
- Women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe dangerous pregnancies, becoming ‘medical refugees’
- All-Star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster Tim McCarver dies at 81
- Mr. Whiskers is ready for his close-up: When an artist's pet is also their muse
- Ross Gay on inciting joy while dining with sorrow
- Amtrak service disrupted after fire near tracks in New York City
- 'The God of Endings' is a heartbreaking exploration of the human condition
Ranking
- FSU football fires offensive, defensive coordinators, wide receivers coach
- Tatjana Patitz, one of the original supermodels of the '80s and '90s, dies at age 56
- From meet-cutes to happy endings, romance readers feel the love as sales heat up
- 'Oscar Wars' spotlights bias, blind spots and backstage battles in the Academy
- Horoscopes Today, November 12, 2024
- No lie: Natasha Lyonne is unforgettable in 'Poker Face'
- 'All the Beauty in the World' conveys Met guard's profound appreciation for art
- 'Wait Wait' for Feb. 18, 2023: With Not My Job guest Rosie Perez
Recommendation
-
Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Explains His Stance on His Daughter Gwendlyn Brown’s Sexuality
-
Italy has kept its fascist monuments and buildings. The reasons are complex
-
A full guide to the sexual misconduct allegations against YouTuber Andrew Callaghan
-
Marilyn Monroe was more than just 'Blonde'
-
Does the NFL have a special teams bias when hiring head coaches? History indicates it does
-
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his musical alter ego
-
Take your date to the grocery store
-
How Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers changed the civil rights movement