North Carolina chief justice to resign next month

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin said Friday he's leaving the state's Supreme Court after 20 years to become a Virginia law school dean.

The resignation means Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper gets to decide who fills the Republican's seat on the court and who the next chief justice will be. Five of the seven current Supreme Court members are registered Democrats.

Martin told The Associated Press of his decision to resign the chief justice's post at the end of February. He's held the post since 2014 and will become dean of Regent University law school in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Martin's sudden departure follows two years in which the state's justices and the courts have been pulled increasingly into political battles between the GOP-controlled legislature and Cooper.

Cooper or his allies have sued several times over legislation that have eroded the governor's powers, including some laws approved a few weeks before Cooper took office in January 2017. The state Supreme Court and lower courts have ruled in cases, with Cooper winning some battles and Republican legislative leaders winning others.

Democrats are hopeful that new lawsuits challenging a new voter photo identification requirement and alleging excessive partisan bias in General Assembly districts drawn by Republican lawmakers fare well on appeal in a court that's moving to the left.

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The legislature also has made all local and statewide court elections officially partisan affairs again. Appeals court races had been officially nonpartisan for more than a decade, although political parties made endorsements.

Martin, who as chief justice leads the state court system, said his decision had nothing to do with the infighting between the other two branches of government.

Martin tells the AP he's still young enough at age 55 to do something different and wanted to work with law students seeking to make a difference in the world. He has been a trial or appeals court judge for 26 years.

"Twenty-six years is a generation of time," Martin said in an interview. "I realize that while I still have my health and ability to work in a fairly intense way that now is the time to really work with young people."

Martin said he first became aware of the potential position at Regent late last summer.

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Associated Press