Gailya Paliga: Time to fill federal court judge position

I was impressed to see that one of our own extremely well-qualified former N.C. Supreme Court justices was nominated April 28 to fill a longtime vacancy on the federal court bench in Eastern North Carolina.

Patricia Timmons-Goodson served as an associate justice on the N.C. Supreme Court from 2006 to 2012. She also served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as a district court judge. In fact, Timmons-Goodson was a judge in North Carolina from 1997 through 2012.

I was appalled to read that Sen. Richard Burr vowed to block her the same day. According to a April 29 news article, “The U.S. Eastern District of North Carolina has the longest running vacancy, a post that has gone unfilled since Jan. 1, 2006 – the day after federal District Court Judge Malcolm Jones Howard semi-retired.”

Since this position is to serve Eastern North Carolina, this vacancy hurts North Carolina directly. Burr has actually blocked two women from this position since 2013.

Burr has caused and continues to cause the federal courts in North Carolina to be short-handed. Burr needs to fulfill his constitutional responsibility and fill this longtime vacancy at judicial emergency status.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Gailya Paliga: Time to fill federal court judge position."