Governor to make appointment for two years on district court bench
Another soon-to-be vacant position is the district court judgeship occupied by Republican Craig Turner, who ran unopposed for one of the county’s two seats on the superior court bench.
It will ultimately be up to North Carolina Governor Josh Stein to appoint a successor to fill out the remainder of Turner’s term in district court. Under state law, however, the governor is expected to “give due consideration” to any nominees from the local bar association, which can submit up to five names for Stein to review.
According to Jeff McMillion, the current president of Alamance County’s bar association, the bar’s members will get together post haste to make recommendations for Turner’s district court seat.
“The goal will be to get this done in the next month,” McMillion told The Alamance News on Wednesday. “We can’t control what the governor does from there, but we’ll hopefully have a new judge before Craig is sworn in.”
McMillion notified members of the bar Wednesday night and solicited any interested contenders for the remaining two years of judge Turner’s district court seat to contact him; he said he would then share those names with members of the bar.
One potential contender for this appointment is Burlington attorney Bryan Norris who was briefly tapped for a district court judgeship that’s now held by Republican Bryan Ray. Norris, a Democrat, had received a gubernatorial appointment to this seat in the spring of 2024. He nevertheless lost the judgeship to Ray when it appeared on the ballot in the fall of the same year.
In addition to sharing the governor’s Democratic affiliation, Norris has apparently not lost his judicial ambitions since his electoral defeat.
“I am interested, and I do intend to seek that appointment,” he told the newspaper on Wednesday afternoon. “I think I have the respect of the bar, and the necessary intelligence and ability to do the job.”
In his letter to bar members, McMillion asks that any attorneys interested in the judgeship contact him by November 25. He has planned a meeting at the Historic Court House on Friday, December 4 at 12:30 p.m.
Through the process of a “secret, written ballot of those present and eligible to vote,” McMillion advises bar members, the names of up to five candidates receiving the higher number of votes will be forwarded to the governor for his consideration.
McMillion tells bar members that his timeframe goal is to have the process completed so that a new district court judge can be sworn in the “same day” as Turner takes his oath as superior court judge in order to prevent “a backlog for district court.”
McMillion passed along Norris’ interest in the judgeship, expressed in a letter Norris sent to McMillion on Wednesday.
