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Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson to resign from NC Supreme Court
Published: November 28, 2012
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- Whom will Perdue name? The news of an opening on the state Supreme Court set off rounds of chatter in political and legal circles Wednesday about who will get the coveted appointment from Gov. Bev Perdue. Whoever is selected would have to stand for election in 2014 to keep the position. Perdue has not commented on how she will make the pick, but much of the speculation Wednesday focused on Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson’s status as the only African-American on the highest court, which is currently made up of a 4-3 female majority. Perdue has “tried to move women and minorities forward in state government, and it would cut against the grain for her to do otherwise,” said Bob Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice now in private practice. Some names being mentioned: • Cheri Beasley, who was elected to the state Court of Appeals in 2008. Like Timmons-Goodson, she is African-American. Beasley’s name came up repeatedly as the leading choice Wednesday. She is from Fayetteville. • Sam Ervin IV, a member of the state Court of Appeals who was just defeated in a close race for a Supreme Court seat against incumbent Paul Newby. • Wanda Bryant, also African-American and a member of the state Court of Appeals. She just ran for election and won an eight-year term, leading to talk that she would not want to face another election in two years. But she told the Wilmington Star-News that, if Perdue called her about the job, she would only ask, “When do I take my oath?” • Cressie Thigpen, who was just defeated for re-election to the state Court of Appeals. Perdue had appointed him to that post in 2011 to replace Barbara Jackson, who had won a seat on the Supreme Court. Much of the talk Wednesday was about Thigpen going back to the Court of Appeals in a scenario that had Beasley appointed to the high court. • Reuben Young, who is Perdue’s Department of Public Safety secretary. He has no judicial experience, and most mentions of him concerned backfilling a slot in a lower court that might open as a result of the Supreme Court choice. • Mark Davis, Perdue’s legal counsel. He has worked in private practice and at the Attorney General’s office, and was a federal judicial clerk in the early 1990s. • Anita Earls, the executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and a civil rights attorney in the Clinton administration. A big downside from Democrats’ point of view: She has been involved in a redistricting lawsuit and would have to recuse herself from making that closely watched case. J. Andrew Curliss
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