N.C. appoints Black woman as chief justice of its Supreme Court in historic first

Cheri Beasley, who has already been a member of the North Carolina Supreme Court for several years, will now lead it

Feb 20, 2019

A judge from the North Carolina Supreme Court is being elevated to become the first Black woman to become chief justice on that panel, the Raleigh News & Observer is reporting.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that Cheri Beasley will become the top judge in the state.

“This is not the North Carolina of 200 years ago,” Beasley told reporters at a news conference at the governor’s mansion, the newspaper reported.

She said she will work to “make sure that our justice system is sound, that we are indeed serving the people of North Carolina the way we should,” WRAL reported.

Cooper broke tradition by elevating Beasley to the post, which usually goes to the senior member of the court, according to WRAL. Two other justices have been on the North Carolina longer than Beasley.

“I know Justice Beasley to be fair and deeply committed to viewing all North Carolinians equally through the eyes of the law,” Cooper said.

The governor told reporters that he also looked at candidates outside of the state Supreme Court.

“Justice Beasley is the right person at the right time,” he said.

Beasley, 53, is filling a spot vacated by Chief Justice Mark Martin, who will become dean at the Regent University School of Law in Virginia, reported WRAL. She graduated from Douglass College in New Brunswick, N.J., with double majors in economics and political science and held externships with the State Department and the National Association of Women State Legislators.

She graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law and spent a summer studying at Oxford University. She has been a judge for two decades and joined the North Carolina Supreme Court seven years ago.

But the decision was not without backlash.

One of the justices who was passed over accused Cooper, who is a Democrat, of playing partisan politics in announcing the decision.

“Sadly, today, Gov. Cooper decided to place raw, partisan politics over a nonpartisan judiciary by rejecting the time-tested tradition of naming the senior associate justice as chief justice,” Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, said in a statement published on the WRAL website. “The governor’s decision further erodes public trust and confidence in a fair judiciary, free from partisan manipulation.”

Robin Hayes, North Carolina Republican Party chair, also condemned the decision.

“One can only believe the reason Cooper decided to ignore the longstanding nonpartisan tradition of the court was purely politics.”

Beasley will assume the post March 1.