Anita Earls facts for kids

Anita Earls (born February 20, 1960) is an American civil rights lawyer. She has been a judge on the North Carolina Supreme Court since 2019. Before becoming a judge, she worked to protect people's rights. She was the leader of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She also worked for the United States Department of Justice during the time Bill Clinton was president. In November 2018, Anita Earls won an election to become a judge on North Carolina's highest court.

Early Life and Learning

Anita Earls grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her parents moved there because a law in Missouri did not allow people of different races to marry. Anita's mother is white, and her father is Black. Anita and her brother were both adopted into their family.

Anita Earls went to Williams College and then to Yale Law School. At Williams College, she studied how money and governments work, along with ideas about life. After college, she received a special scholarship to study in Tanzania. She wanted to learn about the role of women in villages there. However, she had to come back early because she got sick with malaria several times. She then lived in England for a while and worked in a law office. Later, she returned to the United States and studied law at Yale Law School.

Working as a Lawyer

After finishing law school in 1988, Anita Earls started working as a civil rights lawyer. She joined a law firm where she helped people with cases about their rights.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton chose her to work for the U.S. Department of Justice. There, she helped make sure everyone's civil rights were protected.

Later, she led projects focused on voting rights. In 2007, she started her own group called the Southern Coalition For Social Justice (SCSJ) in Durham, North Carolina. This group is a nonprofit organization that works for fairness and justice. She was the first leader of SCSJ. She left that role in 2017 to run for a judge position on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

While at SCSJ, Anita Earls helped people in important voting rights cases. One big case was North Carolina v. Covington. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in 2017 that some voting districts in North Carolina were unfair. These districts were drawn in a way that made it harder for certain groups to vote. This unfair drawing of districts is called gerrymandering. A court then ordered new maps for the districts. With the new maps, more Democrats were elected to the state legislature in 2018.

Anita Earls has also taught law at different universities. These include Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Maryland.

Becoming a Judge

After being elected as a judge on the North Carolina Supreme Court, Anita Earls has written many important decisions. These decisions have covered topics like privacy rights and rules about what the media can say.

In June 2020, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper asked Anita Earls to help lead a special group. This group was called the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. It was formed after the murder of George Floyd. The group has suggested new rules for police, like banning certain holds and requiring officers to report when too much force is used. They also want North Carolina to collect information about race in its crime data. This group's work is still ongoing.

In 2022, news reports said that Anita Earls was considered as a possible judge for the United States Supreme Court. This was when Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring. However, President Biden later chose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for that job.

In August 2023, Justice Earls filed a lawsuit. She said that a group that checks on judges was investigating her. She felt this investigation was trying to stop her from speaking out about problems she saw in the courts. She had talked in an interview about how there might be unfair ideas among judges. She also mentioned that not many Black law clerks were being hired. She also noted that a group looking into fairness in the court system had been stopped. The group that investigates judges is called the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission. Some of its members are chosen by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, who is currently Paul Martin Newby.

On October 22, 2024, Justice Earls announced that she plans to run for re-election in 2026.

Personal Life

Anita Earls is married to Charles D. Walton. He is from Raleigh, North Carolina. She has two children and one grandchild.

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