Anita Earls: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American judge (born 1960)}}

| name = Anita Earls

|image office = Associate Justice Anitaof the [[North Carolina Supreme Earls.jpgCourt]]

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|2|20}}

| birth_place = [[Seattle]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]

| spouse = Jonathan Hodgkiss (1982–2003)<br />{{Marriage|[[Charles WaltonD. (2009–present)Walton]]|2009}}

| education = [[Williams College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Yale University]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]])

Earls grew up in Seattle, Washington. after herHer parents relocated thethere family frombecause Missouri based on the illegality of theirbanned interracial marriage (Earls's mother is white, her father is black). Earls and her brother (who was darker-skinned than Earls) were both adopteesadopted.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=3 March 2014 |title=Anita Earls Oral History Transcription |url=https://libraryrepository.duke.edu/digitalcollectionsdc/rlvideoforsocialchange/mediae540ba0c-9891-4735-8336-d2e098b25fe4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905004422/https://repository.duke.edu/dc/videoforsocialchange/EarlsAnita_2014March03_transcript.pdf|title=Anitae540ba0c-9891-4735-8336-d2e098b25fe4 Earls Oral History Transcription|archive-date=35 MarchSeptember 2023 2014|access-date=15 MarchSeptember 2019}}</ref> Earls' first six years in [[Seattle]] were spent in a [[black2023 people|black]] [[neighborhood]], after which her family [[Racial integration|integrated]] a previously all-white neighborhood. In the racially turbulent 1960s, Earls recalled in a 2014 oral history at website=[[Duke University]] that,Digital growing up, "I always had this great fear that because my family looked the way we did, with my brother looking more black than I did, that if we were ever in a neighborhood and a riot broke out, people wouldn’t know that we were a family. And it felt like the wrong people would be trying to hurt us."Repositories}}</ref>

Earls is a graduate of [[Williams College]] and [[Yale Law School]].<ref name="Observer">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article219823225.html |title=For the NC Supreme Court – Anita Earls |work=newsobserver |access-date=2018-12-01 |language=en}}</ref> Attending [[Williams College]], where she majored in [[political economy]] and [[philosophy]],. Earls observed that "people knew I wasn’t quite white, but they didn’t really know what I was." Upon graduation Earls received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study the role of women in [[Ujamaa]] villages in [[Tanzania]], but her time abroad was cut short by multiple bouts of [[malaria]]. She subsequently moved to [[England]], worked in a solicitor's office, and married her first husband. Three years later she returned to the [[United States]] toand attendattended [[Yale Law School|Yale Law]], because she "had this burning desire to be a lawyer and to try to bring about change [....]<ref I wanted to work on issues of racism in the U.S.name=":0" During her law school studies she gave birth to her first child./>

Following her graduation from [[Yale Law School]], in 1988 Earls was recruitedhired by civil rights champion [[James Ferguson II]] to join [[NorthJulius Carolina]]'s first integrated law firm,L. Chambers|Ferguson, Stein, Watt, Wallas, Adkins & Gresham,]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wral.com/earls-promises-justice-with-strong-heart-as-member-of-nc-supreme-court/18101664/|title=Earls promises justice 'with strong heart' as member of NC Supreme Court|last=WRAL|date=2019-01-03|website=WRAL.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article90052327.html|title=Civil rights champion James Ferguson wins The Charlotte Post Luminary Award|website=charlotteobserver|language=en|access-date=2019-03-01}}</ref> where she practiced civil rights litigation.<ref first as an associate and later as partnername="nccourts.gov">{{Cite web The|title=Anita firmEarls was{{!}} foundedNorth byCarolina [[JuliusJudicial L.Branch Chambers]] in 1964.<ref>{{Cite web|url=httphttps://www.fergusonsumternccourts.comgov/ourjudicial-historydirectory/anita-earls |titleaccess-date=2023-09-03 |website= Our Historywww.nccourts.gov}}</ref>

After serving as director of the [[Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law|Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights]]' voting rights project (2000-2003) and as director of advocacy at the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights (2003-2007),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.carolana.com/NC/Courts/nc_supreme_court_justices_ASE.html|title=North Carolina Supreme Court Justices - Anita Sue Earls|website=www.carolana.com|access-date=2019-03-01}}</ref> in 2007 she founded the [[Southern Coalition For Social Justice]] (SCSJ) in Durham, NC, a [[501(c)(3) organization|501(c)(3)]] nonprofit organization whose team of lawyers, social scientists, community organizers and media specialists "partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.southerncoalition.org/about/|title=About|website=Southern Coalition for Social Justice|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-01}}</ref> There she served as SCSJ's founding executive director, stepping down in 2017 to run for Associate Justice of the [[North Carolina Supreme Court]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2017/12/13/former-nc-redistricting-consultant-hired-interim-director-southern-coalition-social-justice/|title=Former NC redistricting consultant hired as interim director of Southern Coalition for Social Justice|date=2017-12-13|website=The Progressive Pulse|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-01}}</ref>

While at SCSJ, Earls represented clients in several notable voting rights lawsuits, including serving as lead plaintiffs' attorney in ''[[North Carolina v. Covington (2017)|North Carolina v. Covington]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=North Carolina v. Covington |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/north-carolina-v-covington/ |website=SCOTUSblog |access-date=September 19, 2020}}</ref> a landmark case that the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] affirmed in 2017, which resulted in 28 of North Carolina's state house and senate districts being deemed unconstitutional racial [[gerrymanders]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/north-carolina-v-covington/|title=North Carolina v. Covington|website=SCOTUSblog|language=en|access-date=2019-03-02}}</ref> A federal court then ordered a special master to redraw the districts' boundaries for the 2018 election, where under the new maps, state Democrats broke the legislature's nearly decade-long Republican supermajority.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.southerncoalition.org/special-master-ordered-north-carolina-racial-gerrymandering-case/|title=Special Master Ordered in North Carolina Racial Gerrymandering Case|last=Chicurel-Bayard|first=Dustin|date=2017-10-26|website=Southern Coalition for Social Justice|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2018-11-06/north-carolina-voters-decide-on-legislatures-direction|title=N Carolina Democrats Break GOP's Veto-Proof Control|last=Robertson|first=Gary|date=7 November 2018|work=U.S. News and& World Report|access-date=1 March 2019}}</ref>

On June 9, 2020, [[North Carolina Governor]] [[Roy Cooper]] appointed Earls as the Coco-Chairchair of North Carolina's Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice.<ref>{{cite web |title=Associate Justice Anita Earls Named Co-Chair of Governor's Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice |url=https://www.nccourts.gov/news/tag/press-release/associate-justice-anita-earls-named-co-chair-of-governors-task-force-for-racial-equity-in-criminal-justice |website=North Carolina Judicial Branch}}</ref> The Task Force, convened in the wake of the [[murder of George Floyd]], has begun issuing recommendations such as banning choke holds, suggesting that law enforcement agencies implement "duty to report" rules regarding excessive force, and requiring North Carolina to include information on race in its data reporting.<ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Herbert |title=NC task force adds a pair of recommendations for state courts Panel suggests racial information in data |url=http://www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2020/08/28/local-state/nc-task-force-adds-a-pair-of-recommendations-for-state-courts/ |website=Charlotte Post |access-date=September 20, 2020}}</ref> The work of the task force is ongoing.

Citing unnamed sources, the Washington Post reported that Earls was among the short-list of candidates under consideration by the Biden administration for nomination to the [[United States Supreme Court]] to replace retiring [[Stephen Breyer|Justice Breyer]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kim|first=Seung Min|date=January 28, 2022|title=White House confirms South Carolina judge is under consideration for Supreme Court|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/28/white-house-confirms-south-carolina-judge-under-consideration-supreme-court/|access-date=January 31, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gresko |first1=Jessica |title=For a historic high court pick, Dems must think outside box |url=https://apnews.com/3a36206929862d7c06293a5724eff2fd |access-date=September 19, 2020 |website=Associated Press|date=26 February 2020 }}</ref> Ultimately, Biden nominated District Judge [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] to fill the vacancy.

|[[2018 North Carolina judicial electionselection|2018]]

[[Category:21st-century American women judges]]

[[Category:21st-century African-American peoplelawyers]]