Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court

Anita Earls has been an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court since January 2019 and is its senior associate justice²³. She was a civil rights lawyer who founded the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, directed the UNC Center for Civil Rights and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights voting rights project, and served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division²³. She faces Republican Sarah Stevens on November 3, 2026 in this partisan race¹³.

• Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court, since 2019; currently senior associate justice²³
• Founder and executive director, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, 2007 to 2017; director of advocacy, UNC Center for Civil Rights, 2003 to 2007; director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 2000 to 2003; deputy assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, appointed 1998; attorney at Ferguson, Stein law firm in Charlotte from 1988; adjunct professor²⁴³
• B.A. in political economy and philosophy, Williams College, 1981; J.D., Yale Law School, 1988; admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1988²³
• Elected on November 6, 2018, defeating incumbent Republican Justice Barbara Jackson and Chris Anglin with 49.6 percent of the vote, and took office in January 2019 for an eight-year term³. Both 2026 primaries were canceled; she is seeking a second term against Sarah Stevens³¹.