From a ‘National Treasure 3’-style sting to leading NC courts: Meet Justice Paul Newby

Justice Paul Newby never hid the fact from N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley that in 2020 he would be coming for her job.

And on Dec. 12, he did just that.

Beasley called Newby shortly after 9:30 a.m. and conceded the election after a drawn-out battle that included two recounts, numerous disputed ballots and at one point, only five votes between them.

Newby, a Republican, warned his opponent in early 2019 that taking her job was in his plans.

That was when Gov. Roy Cooper passed over Newby, currently the longest-serving member of the N.C. Supreme Court, and appointed Beasley, a Democrat, to the state’s top judicial position.

Newby, as senior associate justice, had the task to swear-in Beasley.

“I said, ‘You know, I believe God has ordained you to be chief justice now,” Newby remembered from that day, “‘but just so we’re clear I hope I’m chief justice in January 2021.”

Newby said Dec. 15 that the past 40 days had been an emotional roller coaster as he waited to hear if he won the race. It ended while he was talking with his wife and Beasley’s name appeared on his caller ID that Saturday morning.

He said that he believed that God would lead North Carolinians to the right person for the job, regardless of whether that was him.

But he added that he is “grateful” it was him.

Emergency orders, court backlog

Newby had just gotten out of court when he spoke with The News & Observer on Dec. 15. He said because he did not want to assume he would win the election he has had only four days to think about where he wants to lead the judicial system in 2021.

The role of chief justice does more than oversee the Supreme Court. Newby will now be in charge of North Carolina’s entire court system.

“The chief justice is the head of a branch of government and makes a lot of administrative and discretionary decisions that affect the entire court system,” said James Drennan, a UNC School of Government professor with expertise in judicial leadership and court administration.

He said that includes overseeing the six other justices, 125 Superior Court judges, 350 District Court judges and 100 clerks, among countless others. And the head of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts serves at the pleasure of the chief justice.

The chief justice’s leadership role has taken a more public view in 2020 as Beasley made emergency orders to keep courts going during a global pandemic.

“That’s a really important decision right now,” Drennan said. “Who would have thought that a chief justice would be regularly issuing emergency orders? And that’s not over.”

Drennan said that alone comes with daily decisions and Newby will have to decide how much he wants those decisions to come from local courthouses.

Newby said his initial thought is to work with senior resident Superior Court and chief District Court judges about deciding what works best for their counties.

Newby said he is also concerned that the judicial system had a backlog of cases before COVID-19 and that has only worsened during the pandemic.

“We’ve got to be innovative and come up with some ways to address these backlogs because backlogs are an enemy to equal justice for everyone,” Newby said. “It’s bad for the criminal defendants that are sitting in jail without their trials, it’s bad for the victims who have gone through some traumatic circumstances, and it’s bad for civil parties that are involved in whatever it may be.”

The Supreme Court has been operating virtually since March.

In 2020, Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls and Attorney General Josh Stein led a committee on racial justice in the courts and law enforcement. The committee recently submitted its recommendations to the governor after more than six months of work that stemmed from unrest because of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers.

Newby said he believes in blind justice.

“You know, Lady Justice is blindfolded for a reason,” Newby said. “She can’t see who comes before her — rich, poor, race, gender — she can’t see because justice is blind.

“And that means justice for everybody,” Newby said.

Party affiliation

Since Beasley’s predecessor, former Chief Justice Mark Martin, a Republican, left the Supreme Court in 2019 and took a job as dean of Regent University’s law school, Newby has been the only Republican on the Supreme Court.

Newby laughed and said that though Martin left him he does prefer getting to call his former colleague Dean Martin.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states with partisan election of judges. That means their party affiliation appears next to their name on the ballot.

The 6-1 margin is about to become a 4-3 split favoring Democrats. In January, Republicans Phil Berger Jr. and Tamara Barringer will also join the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court needs at least four judges to agree on a decision, but Drennan said that often is not a party split.

Former Supreme Court Justice Robert Edmunds, a Republican, said party affiliation may play a small role in court decisions but judicial philosophy plays into a justice’s decisions more.

“The large majority of cases that come before the court — and you can see it in the lineup of who dissents and who votes in the majority on cases and how they shift —that most cases aren’t driven by party: the R or the D,” Edmunds said.

Newby said his decision making does not reflect his political affiliation but acknowledged he has felt lonely among his Democratic colleagues. He said no one else shares his judicial philosophy that he calls, “constitutional conservative.”

Edmunds said that philosophy is very traditional and doesn’t necessarily line up with a party.

Meet Newby

Newby, 65, was born in Randolph County to a linotype operator, his father, and a school teacher, his mother.

“I’m the only justice in the history of the state to be born in Randolph County,” Newby said.

His family soon moved to Jamestown where he was raised. His mom became a teacher there and his father took a job in High Point.

Newby does not have any lawyers in his family but met his first as a Boy Scout.

He holds the title of Distinguished Eagle Scout, an honor which goes to those who received national fame or notability or have distinguished themselves in their field.

Newby said he doesn’t deserve that honor. He thinks it helped that he already held, among others, a Heroism Award from the organization after saving nine people from a riptide. He also has a Silver Beaver award, which is a council-level award for distinguished service.

Newby went to Duke University and one summer interned under then-U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.

“Talk about an incredible and humbling experience,” Newby said.

He added that he wrote, for Burger, speeches and articles during the U.S. bicentennial.

Newby said he was not yet in law school but working under Burger solidified his decision to go.

But it also solidified his decision to stay away from big cities.

Newby attended UNC for law school.

“That was the best decision I ever made,” Newby said.

There he met his wife, Macon, and since then they have together raised four children — two sons and two daughters.

Newby also interned in the Guilford County Public Defender’s Office, which was the first to open in the state and celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

From UNC, Newby worked as a lawyer in Asheville and Kannapolis before being appointed as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, a job he had for 19 years.

In that role, Newby in 2003 was part of a sting operation to recover North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights after the document was stolen by a Union soldier from the state archives in 1865.

“It’s National Treasure 3,” Newby said with a laugh, referencing the Disney films that originate with Nicholas Cage’s character stealing the Declaration of Independence.

In 2004, Newby was sworn in as a N.C. Supreme Court justice.

In January, he’ll take his oath of office to start his third term and become the state’s highest judicial officer.

“He’s a very, very nice person and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him over the years,” Drennan said. “I’m sure he’ll do a good job and I know he’ll work hard.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 9:00 AM.