A Warren Court of Our Own

In November of 1986, the North Carolina Supreme Court was at a crossroads. After virtually a century of dominance by the Democratic Party, Rhoda Billings, a Republican, had been appointed chief justice by Governor Jim Martin several months earlier. Martin had also appointed two Republican associate justices to join her on the court. These appointments resulted in a fierce battle over the next two months to determine whether the Republican Party could finally break the electoral stranglehold held by the Democrats and obtain control of the state's highest court in the 1986 elections. Although five of the supreme court's seven seats were on the ballot that November, the focus of the attention was on the race for chief justice between Billings and the Democratic candidate, Jim Exum, who had served on the court for the previous twelve years. After being passed over by Governor Martin in favor of Billings despite North Carolina's longstanding gubernatorial tradition of appointing the senior associate justice to fill a vacancy for the position of chief justice, Exum resigned from the court to run against Billings.

Ultimately, the Democrats swept all five supreme court races on the ballot, ushering in Exum's tenure as the head of the court. Over the next eight years, Exum presided over a supreme court that—despite the existence of stark differences between several of the justices with regard to judicial philosophy—issued numerous landmark decisions expanding the rights of criminal defendants, breathing new life into the declaration of liberties set out in the North Carolina Constitution, and significantly increasing the remedies available to individual plaintiffs in the areas of tort, employment, and workers' compensation law.

While the expansion of individual rights by the United States Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren has been the subject of extensive academic commentary, very little has been written about the Exum Court. The dearth of scholarship on this subject is unfortunate because Exum's tenure as chief justice—like Warren's—constituted an unprecedented era of judicial boldness.

This book is based primarily on a detailed review of the Exum Court's body of cases and over 45 interviews with the surviving justices from that era of the court, law clerks, practitioners, and members of North Carolina's legal academy. In addition, it draws upon contemporaneous interviews of the justices conducted between 1986 and 1995 as well as on the few existing books and articles about the members of the Exum Court and North Carolina's transformation into a two-party state in judicial elections.

A Warren Court of Our Own: The Exum Court and the Expansion of Individual Rights in North Carolina explores in depth the pathbreaking nature of the Exum Court's jurisprudence and the justices themselves in the hope of providing a better understanding of this unique and important period in the history of North Carolina's highest court and how it fundamentally changed North Carolina law.

"A scholarly and extremely well-written book that tells the story of a period I consider to be a critical time for the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Justice Davis has done an outstanding job of capturing the personalities behind the Exum Court and in illustrating the importance of the decisions rendered during that era. This book is a huge contribution to the study of North Carolina's judiciary and our State's history."
—JAMES B. HUNT, JR., Governor of North Carolina from 1977–1985 and 1993–2001

"Justice Mark Davis has delivered a fascinating insider's account of the workings of the N.C. Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Jim Exum, the motorcycle-riding progressive who moved the conservative high court into the 20th century. Whether you are interested in the law or Tar Heel history, this is the book for you."
—ROB CHRISTENSEN, author and former journalist who wrote about politics for The News & Observer for 45 years

"In this book, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Mark Davis reminds us of the importance of state supreme courts in determining and protecting the civil rights of everyday Americans. In bringing his court to life, he gives readers a rare but invaluable look into how judges decide difficult but socially and legally significant cases."
—MICHAEL J. GERHARDT, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina School of Law

"Justice Mark Davis has written a rich and engaging book that combines a fine collective biography of the very remarkable justices who made up the Exum court with the legal and political climate in which they worked and with descriptions of the transformational cases they decided – enhancing individual rights in tort law, workers' compensation law, employment law, constitutional law, and more. A very fine and thoughtful study of the judicial process in the Exum court."
—MICHAEL KENT CURTIS, Judge Donald Smith Professor of Constitutional and Public Law, Wake Forest University School of Law

"This book carefully describes an important chapter in the history of the North Carolina Supreme Court, when, under the leadership of Chief Justice Jim Exum, a new, younger generation of jurists took a turn away from entrenched conservative doctrine to expand the rights of criminal defendants and civil plaintiffs."
—ADAM STEIN, longtime North Carolina civil rights attorney

"Justice Mark Davis has written an insightful, highly readable, and important book. It is a work of history, biography, law, politics, leadership, and so much more. I hope many people will read this book to understand the Exum Court as well as contemporary issues involving the judiciary that affect all North Carolinians."
—MICHAEL R. SMITH, Dean of the UNC School of Government

"While Davis quotes court observers and even participants stating their views [of these cases], he leaves it to readers to decide for themselves. Having a law degree isn't a prerequisite for grasping the issues at stake in each of the dozens of cases Davis describes."
—DOUG CLARK, former News & Record editorial writer, for the Greensboro News & Record

"Authoring a book about often-controversial rulings of the court could present professional hazards, but Davis deftly presents the facts and arguments on both sides without revealing a personal opinion. ... While Davis quotes court observers and even participants stating their views of these cases, he leaves it to readers to decide for themselves. Having a law degree isn't a prerequisite for grasping the issues at stake in each of the dozens of cases Davis describes."
—DOUG CLARK, former News & Record editorial writer, for the Charlotte Observer

"No author can answer all the questions that his book prompts from interested readers, but few books can provide so much useful information so clearly set forth as this one. Mark Davis has written a model study of a dramatic decade in the history of an important state court."
—JOHN V. ORTH, for the North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. XCVII, No. 2

A Warren Court of Our Own in the media

New book chronicles pivotal era in court's history – North Carolina Lawyers Weekly