Anita Earls: Difference between revisions

Earls grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her parents relocated there because Missouri banned interracial marriage (Earls's mother is white, her father is black). Earls and her brother were both adopted.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=3 March 2014 |title=Anita Earls Oral History Transcription |url=https://repository.duke.edu/dc/videoforsocialchange/e540ba0c-9891-4735-8336-d2e098b25fe4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905004422/https://repository.duke.edu/dc/videoforsocialchange/e540ba0c-9891-4735-8336-d2e098b25fe4 |archive-date=5 September 2023 |access-date=5 September 2023 |website=[[Duke University]] Digital Repositories}}</ref>

Following her graduation from [[Yale Law School]], in 1988 Earls was hired by [[James Ferguson II]] to join [[Julius 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 name="nccourts.gov">{{Cite web |title=Anita Earls {{!}} North Carolina Judicial Branch |url=https://www.nccourts.gov/judicial-directory/anita-earls |access-date=2023-09-03 |website=www.nccourts.gov}}</ref>

On August 29, 2023 Earls filed a lawsuit in Federal court (Earls v. North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission, et al, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, No. 23-cv-00734) accusing North Carolina's judicial ethics commission of launching an investigation into her that stifles her First Amendment-protected criticism of the lack of diversity in the state's courts, stemming from a Law360 interview in which she discussed potential "implicit biases" among her colleagues, a lack of Black law clerks being hired, and how the court's new conservative majority had disbanded a commission tasked with examining racial and gender inequality in the judicial system.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Raymond |first=Nate |last2=Raymond |first2=Nate |date=2023-08-29 |title=N.C. justice sues claiming ethics probe seeks to chill diversity critique |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/nc-justice-sues-claiming-ethics-probe-seeks-chill-diversity-critique-2023-08-29/ |access-date=2023-08-30}}</ref> The North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission is charged by statute with investigating anonymized complaints of judicial misconduct. Six of its fourteen members, including its Chair and Vice Chair, are appointed by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina State Supreme Court,<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the Judicial Standards Commission {{!}} North Carolina Judicial Branch |url=https://www.nccourts.gov/commissions/judicial-standards-commission/about-the-judicial-standards-commission |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=www.nccourts.gov}}</ref> currently Chief Justice [[Paul Martin Newby|Paul Newby]] (R). In a 2019 campaign speech Newby referred to his colleague Earls, saying "In 2018, the Left put $1.5 million to get their 'AOC' person on the court,"<ref>{{Cite web |last=WRAL |date=2019-07-16 |title=Republican Supreme Court judge disses all six other NC justices |url=https://www.wral.com/story/republican-supreme-court-judge-disses-all-six-other-nc-justices/18514145/ |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=WRAL.com |language=en}}</ref> and in 2022 Newby pushed out the Commission's chair days after the chair reminded state judges of the Code of Judicial Conduct's prohibited political conduct.<ref>{{Cite web |title=N.C. chief justice removes court officials and judges who anger the GOP {{!}} Facing South |url=https://www.facingsouth.org/2022/04/nc-chief-justice-removes-court-officials-and-judges-who-anger-gop |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=www.facingsouth.org}}</ref>

Anita is married to Charles D. Walton, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. She has two children and one grandchild.<ref>{{Cite web |titlename=Anita Earls {{!}} North Carolina Judicial Branch |url=https://www.nccourts.gov/judicial-directory/anita-earls |access-date=2023-09-03 |website=www."nccourts.gov}}<"/ref>