- "The 2024 Judicial Candidates Forum" is made possible by a partnership between PBS North Carolina and the North Carolina Bar Association.

[triumphant orchestral music] Joining us now is Democratic candidate for North Carolina's Supreme Court, Allison Riggs.

Ms. Riggs, thank you so much for taking time outta your busy schedule.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Well, it's election season and, and your name is one of many on a large North Carolina ballot in 2024.

Tell us about yourself, your background, why do you want to remain on the Supreme Court?

- Yeah, I grew up in West Virginia, from humble backgrounds.

Put myself through school, undergrad masters in law, and settled in North Carolina like many people did for opportunity and because family settled here.

Been here now 16 years and love it.

I spent my career as a civil rights attorney with a heavy focus on appellate law.

So, I have argued in front of all of North Carolina's appellate courts many times, the fourth and fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal, the Federal Appeals Courts, and twice in the United States Supreme Court.

So I have built my career on defending the Constitution and know from experience that the character, integrity, and intellectual curiosity of the people wearing those black robes matters an awful lot, particularly when you're at the court of highest, highest review.

And so, I want to continue my work in public service in a different way and continue to stand up for our Constitutional rights.

- How big is the difference between sitting on the bench and looking down and having them approach, versus you being the attorney who approaches the bench?

- Yeah, it's a different mindset, but I think those, the fact that I was so recently in the shoes of the attorneys appearing before us was really helpful.

Appellate courts are very different than trial courts.

I have a lot of respect for the attorneys who are working so hard to present cases on appeal, that you're not re-litigating the facts, you are arguing the law.

It's almost the purest legal exercise.

And I've been in front of judges who I thought were dismissive of the cases that we were bringing and, and judges who haven't, who weren't.

And so I wanna be a judge that every person who walks in front of my bench knows that I'm gonna give them a fair shake.

The attorneys know how deeply I respect them.

And ultimately, I think my track record over the last two years has proven that I'm doing what I, what I intended to do.

- Lay people expect a Supreme Court justice to write opinions, you know, dissents, majority opinions, but what other job duties with being an associate justice on North Carolina's Supreme Court to you are very important once we look under the hood of this job to see what it's really all about?

- Mentorship is incredibly important.

We have a lot of interns and externs and clerks, first job outta law school who come through our chambers and we provide the on-the-job education that's gonna set up a lot of lawyers for success and create opportunities.

We have a lot of law schools in North Carolina, and I'm really proud.

A lot of people invested in me early in my career.

It wasn't an accident that I argued my first United States Supreme Court case eight years out of law school.

It's because I was blessed to have mentorship and people pouring into me.

And I take very seriously that I now have a position of power where I can turn around and hold out my hand to the young lawyers coming up behind me and create opportunities and chances for learning for them.

- Let's talk about dissent.

What factors do you consider in deciding whether you'll dissent?

Bearing in mind, that unlike the Court of Appeals, a dissent on the Supreme Court has no immediate effect.

- Yeah.

Well, actually the role of dissent on the Court of Appeals has changed recently too.

It used to trigger a right of appeal to the Supreme Court, but I've given this a lot of thought since I joined.

Obviously, we have partisan seats.

There are five Republicans and two Democrats.

And if, you know, my seat is, I'm a Democrat and one of the two Democrats, I want to build bridges.

That is my first and foremost goal to get to the right answer.

But if we, if I can't help the court get to what I believe the right answer is, I know that dissents are a really important part of shaping how the law develops over time.

If you look back in the history of this country, there have been dissents that have shaped where the law went, important dissents in a case after, in World War II, Korematsu, where we were sending young Japanese Americans to internment camps on the West Coast and the US Supreme Court approved of that.

And the dissents that, that said, even, even national security doesn't justify us discriminating on the basis of race have shaped where the law went.

That's been true in voting cases, in criminal cases, in LGBTQ issues.

So, I am speaking for what I believe is right and also planting a seed that hopefully bears fruit in the future.

- I have about 45 seconds.

I want to ask.

Voters are being asked to vote for Supreme Court Justices on a partisan basis, Republican, Democrat.

How much should partisanship link to predictability if a person votes with their party, or even against their party, in choosing you or your opponent?

- Yeah, well, you know, partisan politics have no role in the court.

I hope that people, that through opportunities like this, they can get to know me, my heart, my character, my background, and my experience, and choose, choose to vote for me based on that.

But the decision to make these elections partisan, obviously injects a level of politics that I wish weren't there.

But notwithstanding, what I'm gonna do is lead with character, intelligence, curiosity, and humility.

- Democrat Alison Riggs, candidate for Supreme Court, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you for having me.

- [Kelly] "The 2024 Judicial Candidates Forum" is made possible by a partnership between PBS North Carolina and the North Carolina Bar Association.