The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington,D.C.,it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student,lawyer,and faculty divisions;the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events,lectures,and other activities,it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing conservative views to interact with members of the legal profession,the judiciary,and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
Sarah Elizabeth Parker is an American judge who served as the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from February 2006 until August 2014.
Robert F. "Bob" Orr is an American attorney,jurist,and politician who served as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1995 to 2004. Orr was a Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina in 2008 North Carolina gubernatorial election.
The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s,it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice,although the number of justices has varied. The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies.
John Charles Martin was an American attorney,who retired as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals on August 1,2014.
James Andrew Wynn Jr. is an American jurist. He serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and formerly served on both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Willis Padgett Whichard is an American lawyer and a prominent figure in North Carolina politics and education. Whichard is the only person in the history of North Carolina who has served in both houses of the state legislature and on both of the state's appellate courts.
Thomas Ruffin (1787–1870) was an American jurist and justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859. He was chief justice of that Court from 1833 to 1852.
The North Carolina Law Review is a law journal of the University of North Carolina School of Law. It publishes six issues each year as well as its online supplement,the North Carolina Law Review Forum.
Robert Neal "Bob" Hunter,Jr. is a North Carolina lawyer and retired jurist formerly serving on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Albert Diaz is an American lawyer who is the chief 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.
Mark Allen Davis is an American attorney and jurist. He has served as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court (2019-2020) and previously as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Davis currently serves as Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases on the North Carolina Business Court.
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.
Michael J. Gerhardt is the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. He is also the director of the Center on Law and Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an expert on constitutional law,separation of powers,and the legislative process. He is a Scholar in Residence at the National Constitution Center and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. On December 2,2019,it was announced that Gerhardt would testify before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.
Richard Donald Dietz is a judge on the North Carolina Supreme Court,having been elected in 2022. He previously served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals after being appointed by Governor Pat McCrory to fill the vacant seat created by the elevation of Robert N. Hunter,Jr. to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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.
One justice of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and three judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 6,2018,concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years. These elections were partisan for the first time since the elections of 2002. A law passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2017 cancelled primary elections for judicial elections in 2018 only,meaning that an unlimited number of candidates from any party could run in the general election.
Anita Earls is an American civil rights attorney who has served as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court since 2019. She previously served as the executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice,as well as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice during the Clinton administration. On November 6,2018,Earls defeated Republican incumbent Justice Barbara Jackson in a three-candidate election to win a seat on the state's highest court.
Allison Jean Riggs is an American state court judge. She was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the North Carolina Court of Appeals,and later to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Louis A. Bledsoe III is an American judge serving on the North Carolina Business Court. He became its Chief Judge in 2018. Bledsoe received numerous honors as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina,graduated with honors from Harvard Law School,held a prestigious federal clerkship with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,was a commercial and business litigator with a law firm for 29 years before being appointed and reappointed to North Carolina's Business Court where he will have served from 2018 through 2024 as its Chief Judge.
