RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina’s race for the NC Supreme Court has made a lot of headlines this year.  An incumbent republican is being challenged by a well-known democrat in the political circles, and a fellow republican who recently made the switch to be part of the GOP.

ANITA EARLS:

Anita Earls is no stranger to folks in the political realm in North Carolina.  She has been one of the leading voices in the fight against gerrymandering-and other social justice issues.

“The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is a community lawyering organization that I founded over 11 years ago,” says Earls, who stepped down from the organization for her run for the bench.

A leader in many rights, Earls is a long way from her beginnings- clear across the country.

“I was born in Seattle, Washington.  There is a reason why I ended up in Seattle,” Earls says. “Because my parents, who met and fell in love in Missouri- because my father is black and my mother is white, it was illegal at that time for them to be married in Missouri.”

Earls credits lessons she learned as child-as she watched her parents and their struggles- as key in shaping her into the advocate she is today.

“He was not being treated equally because of his race,” she says of her father. “He felt he was not being paid the same.  As white employees who were doing exactly the same job.”

Years later, as a practicing attorney, another defining moment when her brother was murdered. But no one was convicted for his death.

“It was 12 years ago. This was after I had been a civil rights attorney.  After I  had worked at the US Justice Department.  So, really in terms of my career fairly recently, my brother was murdered and I was not able to get justice for my family.  There was no prosecution even though we know the person who killed him.”

Earls said she knew it was time to make the move from defender of justice to an elected seat on the bench as she watched the political climate in North Carolina continue to become more divided.

“It seems to me, that I could file as many cases as I want to, but if there wasn't a court there to apply the law equally, and give my clients a fair shake when they come to court, then all my work would be useless,” she says. “So it became very clear to me that it was important to stand up for a fair and impartial court and maintain and that's what motivated me to run.”

And she says as she seeks this seat on the state Supreme Court, she believes she can offer the experience and voice folks across the state are looking for.

“I'm a mom and a grandma.  And I feel like I have a sense of what families struggle with,” she says. “I come from modest means, and I was a single mom when my older son was in college. And I feel like I am just an ordinary person.  I have had extraordinary opportunities and I have tried to take advantage of them.  But I have just worked all my life to try to be a voice to people who need a voice and access to justice that otherwise wouldn't have representation.”

To learn more about Anita Earls’ campaign, visit her website here. 

Chris Anglin:

By all accounts, Chris Anglin is a newcomer to the political scene.

“I always kind of thought that I wanted to be involved,” Anglin says, “I wanted to be involved in the political environment in some way. Be a politician basically and I guess this, being a judge now counts. Because it is a partisan race.”

But this young attorney has been proving himself in the seven years since he passed the bar exam.

“I am in state and federal court every day,” says Anglin. So I know the difficulties that are facing the members of the general public. I see firsthand the problems that citizens face when they go to the courts.  So, I think I would be able to help address that as a Supreme Court justice.

Anglin says he is a family man- close to his parents and sister. Born in Houston, North Carolina was home for part of his childhood, before his teen years when his family relocated to Orlando.

“I played sports year round basically. In the summer, I would swim. Then I played basketball, and then baseball and soccer throughout the year,” he says. “They have taken me to thousands and thousands of sporting events during that time.”

Anglin says his mom recently showed him a school project from when he was young, where he said he wanted to become either an attorney or a doctor. He says by the time he was in high school, his future was clear.

“I started reading a bunch of John Grisham books and watching Law and Order. Jack McCoy was my hero or my fictional hero, when I was in high school,” he says.  “Or government classes in high school.  I would say that really strengthened my interest in being a lawyer.”

Anglin has shaken things up a bit in this run for the NC Supreme Court. Questions raised about his change in party affiliation to republican, and his intentions.  He says the characterizations aren't true and that he is running because he thinks he is a good fit for the position.

“I want people to know that if I am elected I will take the role seriously,” he says. “I think I have been unfairly portrayed and my character has been called into question. I try to be a hard working person. I try to be honest. I try to treat my friends and family well.”

To learn more about Chris Anglin, you can log on to his website. 

Barbara Jackson:

Barbara Jackson has sat as an associate justice on the NC Supreme Court since 2011 but her love for the law began well before that.

“I worked for a bank for a time, for about a year, and then said you know what? I am going to take a baby step into law. So I went to paralegal school,” she says, “and I loved it.”

Jackson says her path to the bench was a bit of an unconventional one. One that started in a field of study she didn't enjoy and was followed by dropping out of graduate school.

“I went to college, and my parents thought it would be a great idea for me to be a business major,” she says. “That was not a great idea.  I just really wasn't particularly interested. So, I started with some business classes and decided that I was too young to be that miserable.”

Jackson has spent a majority of her life here in North Carolina, a graduate of Athens Drive High School in Wake County. She says school where her lifelong love of learning began.

“I loved to read. And it kind of turned into a game,” she remembers. “We had these supplementary reading contests, book reading contests, starting in about second grade. I remember just starting to devour books.”

It was through the support of parents and husband that Jackson decided to take the jump from the State Court of Appeals, to run for the highest court in North Carolina. She says her years in both these roles can benefit the Court moving forward.             

“There is definitely a learning curve there,” says Jackson of NC Supreme Court. “That's why I think experience is so important.  Whether it’s as an appellate judge or the Supreme Court, you start out as a junior justice. You’re basically a secretary for the court.”

Jackson says there is still work to be done on the Court and she is a big advocate for technological advances. But, she says, perhaps most important is that political discord in the state, doesn't influence how any justice rules.

“You have to be fair and impartial,” she says. “You have to set aside your personal feelings. You know there is a lot of talk about the general assembly and its choices and decisions. When we consider what the general assembly has done and choose not to overturn it, it’s not a ratification of their public policy decision.  It’s a decision that it falls within the parameters that are set by law.”

To learn more about Barbara Jackson, you can log on to her website.