Alan Z. Thornburg (born January 10, 1967) is an American lawyer and jurist, formerly a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Born in Sylva, North Carolina, Thornburg earned a history degree from Davidson College in 1989 and a Juris Doctor degree from Wake Forest University in 1996. His father, Lacy Thornburg, is a former North Carolina attorney general, state superior court judge, and federal district court judge.
After serving as an aide to U.S. Senator Terry Sanford and working in private practice in Asheville, North Carolina from 1997 to 2004, Thornburg was named to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2004. He is married and has two children.
In 2004, Thornburg sought a full eight-year term on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, but was defeated by Barbara Jackson in the statewide judicial elections.
Gov. Mike Easley appointed Thornburg to the North Carolina Board of Transportation in 2005 and then appointed him to a Superior Court judgeship in 2009. He was elected to keep his seat on the superior court bench in the November 2010 election. [1] Thornburg is currently the senior resident superior court judge for Buncombe County. [2]
Michael Francis Easley is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a felony. The conviction was later expunged by the Chief Judge of the Superior Court of Wake County. A member of the Democratic Party, Easley was North Carolina's second Catholic governor.
Martin Luther Nesbitt Jr. was a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. He represented the 49th district. An attorney from Asheville, North Carolina, Nesbitt was elected to eleven terms in the state House before moving to the state senate in 2004.
Robert Holt Edmunds Jr. is an American lawyer, formerly an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Elections to choose members of the North Carolina Council of State were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004.
George Kenneth Butterfield Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 1st congressional district from 2004 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in a special election after the resignation of Frank Ballance.
Patricia Ann "Pat" Timmons-Goodson is an American judge and politician who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2006 to 2012. She previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights and is a former nominee to be a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Timmons-Goodson ran for Congress in 2020.
Robert Carl "Bob" Hunter is an American jurist, who served as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 1998 through 2014.
John Marsh Tyson is an American jurist and government official who currently serves as a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He also previously served on the court from 2001 to 2009.
Several judges of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the state's two appellate courts, were elected on November 2, 2004. The 2004 United States presidential election, 2004 United States House election, 2004 United States Senate election, 2004 North Carolina Council of State election and 2004 North Carolina General Assembly election were held on the same day.
Barbara Jackson is an American attorney and jurist who was elected in 2010 to an eight-year term on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Lacy Herman Thornburg is an American lawyer and retired United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He served as the North Carolina attorney general from 1985 to 1993.
John S. Arrowood is an American attorney and judge. In April 2017, Arrowood was appointed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals by Governor Roy Cooper, to replace Judge Doug McCullough, a Republican who resigned one month before he would have reached the mandatory retirement age.
Samuel James Ervin IV is a North Carolina lawyer and jurist who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2015 to 2022. He previously served as a state Utilities Commissioner and as a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He is the grandson of U.S. Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr. and the son of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Judge Sam J. Ervin III.
One justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and five judges of the North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 2, 2010, on the same day as the U.S. Senate election, U.S. House elections, and other state-level elections. North Carolina judicial elections are non-partisan. Terms for seats on each court are eight years. All incumbent judges and justices who sought re-election won their respective races, except for Judge Cressie Thigpen of the Court of Appeals, who had been appointed shortly before the election and lost North Carolina's first statewide election to use Instant-runoff voting.
Albert Diaz is the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Diaz is the first Hispanic judge to serve on the Fourth Circuit. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Diaz was a North Carolina state superior court judge and an appellate judge for the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals.
Cressie H. Thigpen, Jr. is a North Carolina lawyer and jurist who served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Four justices of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and four judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 4, 2014, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years.
Lucy Noble Inman is a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and formerly served as a special North Carolina Superior Court judge. She won election to the appellate court in a statewide race on November 4, 2014.
One justice of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and five judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 8, 2016, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years.
Robert C. Ervin is a North Carolina Superior Court judge who has presided over numerous high-profile cases. He is the grandson of U.S. Senator Sam J. Ervin, the son of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Sam J. Ervin III and the brother of state Supreme Court Justice Sam J. Ervin IV.