Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

NC Justice Anita Earls says protests over contested race raised awareness about electing judges

The night before swearing in Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, fellow Justice Anita Earls was in Greensboro to discuss the importance of judicial races. 

She spoke to a group of about 75 voting-rights activists Monday at St. Francis Episcopal Church & Day School. 

The reason Democrat Riggs wasn’t sworn in until Tuesday was because her opponent, Republican Jefferson Griffin, contested the election for six months. 

Many people, including some of the event’s attendees, had protested over Griffin’s refusal to concede. Earls says speaking out helped raise awareness about the importance of judicial races.

“Because judges make decisions all the time that impact people's daily lives, from how much they pay for their electricity to whether or not they'll get compensated if they're injured on the job,” she says. “Very basic things that determine your life chances are decided by our courts.”

Earls, a Democrat, says she’ll seek re-election when her seat comes up next year. She’ll face at least one challenger, Republican State Rep. Sarah Stevens of Surry County, who announced her campaign last month.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate