Cooper appoints Allison Riggs to NC Supreme Court, setting stage for 2024 court race

Gov. Roy Cooper appointed a new North Carolina Supreme Court justice on Monday: Allison Riggs, an appellate judge who said she’s proud to become the youngest woman ever to serve on the state’s highest court.

Riggs, 42, said she will use her new position “to ensure that the phrase ‘equal justice for all’ lives up to its promise in this state.”

The move comes after Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan, a Democrat elected to an eight-year term in 2016, stepped down last week. The court’s next oral arguments begin Tuesday.

Riggs currently serves on the state Court of Appeals, a position Cooper appointed her to last year. On Monday, Cooper also appointed Carolyn Thompson to take Riggs’ place on the appeals court. Thompson, a former trial court judge, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the appeals court last year. Although judges are elected in North Carolina, state law allows the governor to fill any vacancies on the bench.

“It’s important to note how much our courts affect our lives,” Cooper said at a press conference at the governor’s mansion, adding, “Disputes ranging from women’s health to voting rights, protection of our air, water and lands and constitutional questions are making their way through courts across our country.”

Riggs previously served in top roles for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. The Durham-based advocacy group is best known for its lawsuits against North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature on voting rights issues — particularly voter ID and gerrymandering.

The only other Democrat on the state’s highest court is Justice Anita Earls, who founded the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Riggs took over the group’s legal leadership after Earls won a 2018 election to the Supreme Court.

Earls recently announced she was under investigation by the state’s Judicial Standards Commission for making critical comments about racial and gender biases in the state’s courts; the investigation claims she improperly cast doubt on the integrity of the courts.

Earls has since sued to stop that investigation, WRAL reported last month. And while Riggs didn’t directly address that issue Monday, she used her speech to say that courts have historically served as “a backdrop against extremism,” but that she believes there’s still more work to be done for equality in the justice system.

“I’m going to continue to communicate with North Carolinians about my values and my background as an experienced civil rights attorney — as someone who has seen the ways in which our courts system hasn’t always worked for everyone,” Riggs said.

Politics and the court

Republicans have often bashed Earls for her history suing the legislature over voting rights and civil rights.

Riggs has a similar background to Earls. She has twice led anti-gerrymandering oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court and was also heavily involved in the Moore v. Harper case, involving the controversial “Independent State Legislature” theory, which North Carolina Republican lawmakers lost in June. She said Monday she doesn’t think that her history should be a concern with any future decisions on the Supreme Court.

“I understand my role as a jurist, as opposed to my former role as an advocate,” Riggs said, adding that she has written dozens of opinions during her Court of Appeals tenure, many of them for a bipartisan majority.

One of her new colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Republican Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr., sent Riggs a message of support on social media following her appointment.

“Welcome to the Court!” wrote Berger, who also previously served on the lower appellate court, although the two never overlapped there. “I look forward to working with you.”

The seat Riggs was just appointed to will be on the ballot in 2024, and she confirmed Monday she plans to run next year for a full eight-year term on the court. Republicans currently hold a 5-2 advantage on the court and could stretch that to a 6-1 majority if the GOP candidate wins that race instead.

Her former colleague on the Court of Appeals, Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, also plans to run for the seat next year. And Riggs could face at least one Democratic challenger in a primary; over the weekend Guilford County Superior Court Judge Lora Cubbage announced her own plans to campaign for the Supreme Court in 2024.

Morgan chose to leave the court now rather than seeking re-election; even if he had won he would’ve hit the mandatory retirement age for judges midway through a new term.

There’s speculation Morgan may run for governor, setting up a Democratic primary challenge with Attorney General Josh Stein. When he announced he would leave the court last month, Morgan wrote that he has “a desire to make a difference in the state of North Carolina” and that “after I get off the court I can focus on how that might best be accomplished.”