Sam Ervin IV

This is the page for the justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. If you are looking for the federal judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, please see: Samuel Ervin.

Sam Ervin IV (Democratic Party) (also known as Jimmy) was a judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 1, 2015. He left office on January 1, 2023.

Ervin (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Ervin completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Ervin first became a member of the North Carolina Supreme Court through a nonpartisan election.^[1] He was first elected to the court in 2014 to the seat vacated by Robert N. Hunter, Jr.. To read more about judicial selection in North Carolina, click here.

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.^[2] Ervin received a confidence score of Strong Democrat.^[3] Click here to read more about this study.

Biography

Judge Ervin was born in Morganton, North Carolina, on November 18, 1955. He graduated from Freedom High School in Burke County in 1974. Ervin received his A.B. from Davidson College in 1978 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981.

After graduating law school, Ervin practiced law with the firm of Byrd, Byrd, Ervin, Whisnant, McMahon, P.A. He was nominated to the state utilities commission by Gov. James Hunt, Jr. (D) in 1999 and re-nominated by Gov. Mike Easley (D) in 2007.

Ervin was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2008 and served until joining the state supreme court.^[4]

Ervin has been associated with the following organizations:^[5]

First Presbyterian Church of Morganton, North Carolina, administrative committee, elder, deacon, and Sunday school teacher
American Battlefield Trust
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Carolina Mountain Club
Historic Burke Foundation
History Museum of Burke County
Piedmont Council of Traditional Music
Supreme Court Historical Society
Certified youth, middle school, and high school soccer official.

Elections

2022

General election

General election for North Carolina Supreme Court

Trey Allen defeated incumbent Sam Ervin IV in the general election for North Carolina Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Trey Allen (R)	52.2	1,957,440
	Sam Ervin IV (D)	47.8	1,792,873

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,750,313
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Sam Ervin IV advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina Supreme Court.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for North Carolina Supreme Court

Trey Allen defeated April C. Wood and Victoria Prince in the Republican primary for North Carolina Supreme Court on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Trey Allen	55.4	385,124
		April C. Wood	36.3	252,504
	Submit photo	Victoria Prince	8.3	57,672

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 695,300
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign finance

2014

See also: North Carolina Supreme Court elections, 2014

Ervin ran for election to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
General: He defeated Judge Bob Hunter in the general election on November 4, 2014, receiving 52.6% of the vote.

Endorsements

During his 2014 campaign, Ervin was endorsed by the following organizations:

Durham People's Alliance^[6]
North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, Inc.
NC Association of Educators
North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys^[7]

2012

See also: North Carolina judicial elections, 2012

Ervin ran for election to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He was defeated by incumbent Justice Paul Martin Newby in the general election, receiving 48.1% of the vote.^[8]

Endorsements

During his 2012 campaign, Ervin was endorsed by the following organizations:

North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys^[9]
The Sierra Club^[10]

Campaign themes

2022

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released July 26, 2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

Sam Ervin IV completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ervin's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a native of Morganton, North Carolina; a product of the Burke County public schools; and a graduate of Davidson College and Harvard Law School. I practiced law privately in Morganton from 1981 until 1999. While in private practice, I handled a wide variety of civil, criminal and administrative matters, including numerous appeals. In 1999, I took office as a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and served on that body until 2009. While at the Utilities Commission, I helped decide many important regulatory proceedings, served as Chair of the Committee on Electricity and the Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions, and testified before Congress twice. I was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2008 and served on that body from 2009 until 2015, when I took office at the Supreme Court of North Carolina after having been elected to that position in 2014. At the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, I have participated in deciding many important civil, criminal, and administrative cases. I live in Morganton, am married to Mary Temple Ervin, and have two step-children and two children.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Each case should be decided based on the law, the facts, and nothing else.
Every person should be treated equally under the law.
Judicial officials should not have a partisan or political agenda.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Judicial officials, including Justices of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, are supposed to decide the cases that come before them without taking their own public policy positions into account and without attempting to implement a political or ideological agenda. Courts exist to ensure that all persons entitled to legal remedies are able to obtain them, to protect the legal rights of all people, and to ensure that each branch of government, including the judiciary, remains within proper constitutional bounds. Judicial officials are supposed to decide the cases that come before them based upon a dispassionate analysis of the law as it is reflected in the relevant constitutional provisions, statutory provisions, and common law principles and the facts and not on the basis of political or ideological considerations. I am exceedingly concerned about the increasing extent to which courts are seen as just another partisan political institution and am running for re-election to the position that I currently occupy in order to do what I can to preserve a fair and impartial judiciary

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to a lot of people, but among the most important are my parents and grandparents, each of whom, in their own way, taught me a lot. My father and paternal grandfather, both of whom were judges, had a significant influence on my approach to deciding cases as an appellate judge, with my grandfather having emphasized that no one was above the law and that all people were entitled to have their legal rights protected and my father having emphasized that what appellate judges do has a real impact on real people and that they should take their work very seriously for that reason. I learned a great deal about the importance of serving the community from my mother, who was a public school social studies teacher, served as a member of the Board of Trustees for both the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Davidson College, and actively participated in the work of our church and many other non-profit organizations. I learned the importance of kindness and patience from my paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother, who were, perhaps, the nicest and most patient people that I have known in my life. And I learned the importance of persevering in the face of hardship from my maternal grandmother, who raised two children during the Great Depression at a time when she suffered from severe migraine headaches for which there was no effective treatment. I remember the lessons that I learned from my parent and grandparents every day.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I have held public office in North Carolina for going on a quarter of a century. During that time, I believe that I have demonstrated that I work very hard by mastering the trial record, carefully studying the law, and making decisions that conscientiously apply the law to the facts and that treat everyone as equal under the law. I further believe that an examination of my record will reveal that I carefully study the record and the briefs that have been submitted for the Court's consideration, that I am open to persuasion by all parties and that I write thorough opinions that fully explain the basis for the decision that has been made. As a result, I believe that my lengthy record of service in judicial and quasi-judicial office shows that I am the best qualified candidate in the race for the seat on the Supreme Court of North Carolina that I now occupy.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core duties of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina revolve around deciding cases involving difficult questions of North Carolina and federal law. I do not believe that judicial officials should espouse a particular political philosophy and think that, instead, they should strive to make sure that their work does not tend to suggest that they have one. Instead, unlike officials housed in the executive and legislative branches, members of the appellate judiciary are supposed to decide specific legal issues that arise in disputes between the parties in the cases that come before the court based upon an examination of the law, the facts, and nothing else and should treat everyone as equal under the law. Appellate judges, at least in my view, are not supposed to attempt to implement their own political or ideological views in the course of making judicial decisions and should, instead, simply apply the existing law to the facts in a dispassionate manner. I am very concerned about the fact that the courts are increasingly being viewed as just another partisan political institution, which is the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be, and that appellate judicial races seem to me to be getting more and more partisan with each new election cycle. I am running for re-election to the Supreme Court of North Carolina in order to stand up for the existence of an appellate judiciary which does what judges are supposed to do, no more and no less.

What is your favorite book? Why?

My favorite non-Biblical books is The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, which is generally recognized as one of the greatest novels ever written by an American. I am drawn to The Sound and the Fury because it paints a compelling psychological portrait of what had once been a distinguished Southern family in decline because of the weaknesses of each of its members and because, in the midst of tragedy, the book still strikes a note of hope through the endurance of Dilsey, who continues to love the members of the family and to do what she can for them in spite of their failings. I see something new in the The Sound and the Fury every time I read it and think that it still has a lot to teach us about many different subjects almost a century after its initial publication.

How would you describe your legal philosophy?

My judicial philosophy is relatively simple. A member of the appellate judiciary has two essential tasks. First, he or she is called upon to decide legal disputes between citizens and citizens; citizens and business entities; multiple business entities; and citizens or business entities, on the one hand, and the State or state agencies, on the other. Secondly, members of the appellate judiciary are called upon to ensure that the legislative, executive, and judicial branches exercise the authority that is available to them subject to appropriate constitutional limits. I believe that the role of a judge in attempting to carry out both of these functions is to decide specific cases on the basis of the existing law and the properly-established facts without attempting to further any sort of political or ideological agenda. I believe that my record in judicial and quasi-judicial office demonstrates that I decide cases based solely on the law and the facts and that I do not attempt to implement any sort of political or ideological agenda as I go about my work.

What is your primary concern about today's legal system in your state?

My primary concern about today's legal system is the increasing loss of confidence in the judicial system on the part of many of our fellow citizens. As I have already indicated, I strongly believe that the task of appellate judges is to decide specific cases based solely on the law and the facts while treating everyone as equal under the law and that judges should not attempt to implement some sort of political or ideological agenda through their decisions. However, the return to partisan judicial elections in North Carolina coupled with the increasing amount of money being spent in those races tends to suggest to the average voter that judicial officials are, in fact, little more than partisan political actors. The legitimacy of the decisions made by the judicial branch rests, in large part, upon public confidence that judges are, in fact, doing what they are supposed to do. I decided to run for re-election to the Supreme Court of North Carolina for the purpose of attempting to ensure the existence of a judicial system that carries out the fundamental mission that has been given to it under our state constitution..

How does your state’s supreme court serve as part of the state government’s checks and balances?

As I indicated in response to an earlier question, one of the roles of the appellate judiciary is to ensure that each branch of government remains within proper constitutional bounds. The Supreme Court of North Carolina has made a number of decisions addressing separation of powers issues in recent years, having both upheld and rejected assertions of power on the part of the other branches of government. In these increasingly partisan times, it is more important that ever for state appellate courts to ensure that the each branch of government is able to do what it is constitutionally entitled to do without intruding into the work of the other branches of government.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Analysis

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

Last updated: June 15, 2020

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.

The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.^[11]

The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:

Strong Democrat
Mild Democrat
Indeterminate^[12]
Mild Republican
Strong Republican

This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.

Sam
Ervin

North Carolina

Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Democrat
Judicial Selection Method:
Elected
Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat
- Held political office as a Democrat
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates

Partisan Profile

Details:

Ervin was a registered Democrat as of 2020. From 1998 to 2008 he was a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and a registered Democrat. He donated $1,700 to Democratic candidates. He received $2,000 from the North Carolina Democratic Women, $3,500 from the North Carolina Association of Educators, and $1,000 from the Democratic Women's Caucus. He recieved endorsements from Durham People's Alliance, North Carolina Police Benevolent Association, Inc., The North Carolina Association of Educators, and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. In 2014, he ran in a special election to fill the seat of Justice Mark Martin. At the time of his election, North Carolina was a Republican trifecta.

State supreme court judicial selection in North Carolina

See also: Judicial selection in North Carolina

The seven justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court are chosen through partisan elections. Justices are elected to eight-year terms and must face re-election if they wish to serve again.^[13]

Qualifications

To serve on this court, a person must be licensed to practice law in North Carolina. There is a mandatory retirement age of 72 years.^[14]

Chief justice

The chief justice of the supreme court is elected by voters to serve in that capacity for an eight-year term.^[15]

Vacancies

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a successor to serve until the next general election which is held more than 60 days after the vacancy occurs. The governor must select an appointee from a list of three recommendations provided by the executive committee of the political party with which the vacating justice was affiliated.^[16] An election is then held for a full eight-year term.^[17]^[13]

The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

North Carolina Supreme Court

Footnotes

↑ At the time of Ervin's election, elections to the North Carolina Supreme Court were nonpartisan. The state adopted partisan elections for the supreme and appellate courts in 2016."
↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
↑ The North Carolina Court System, "Judge Sam Ervin, IV biography," accessed August 5, 2021
↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 4, 2022
↑ Durham People's Alliance, "2014 Judicial," accessed August 20, 2014
↑ Archive.org, "Sam Ervin 2014 campaign website - Endorsements," accessed August 5, 2021
↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "General Election - Official Results," November 6, 2012
↑ North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, "Endorsements by the Judicial Endorsement Committee," 2012
↑ HCPress.com, "NC Sierra Club Endorses Sam Ervin IV for N.C. Supreme Court, He Served 10 Years on N.C. Utilities Commission," October 29, 2012
↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
↑ ^13.0 ^13.1 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | School of Government, "History of North Carolina Judicial Elections," August 2020
↑ North Carolina Judicial Branch, "Judicial Qualifications Summary," September 28, 2016
↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Carolina," accessed September 20, 2021
↑ Ballotpedia Election Administration Legislation Tracker, "North Carolina S382," accessed December 19, 2024
↑ North Carolina General Assembly, "North Carolina Constitution - Article IV," accessed September 20, 2021 (Section 19)

[1] At the time of Ervin's election, elections to the North Carolina Supreme Court were nonpartisan. The state adopted partisan elections for the supreme and appellate courts in 2016."

[2] We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.

[3] The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.

[bio-4] The North Carolina Court System, "Judge Sam Ervin, IV biography," accessed August 5, 2021

[5] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 4, 2022

[6] Durham People's Alliance, "2014 Judicial," accessed August 20, 2014

[7] Archive.org, "Sam Ervin 2014 campaign website - Endorsements," accessed August 5, 2021

[election-8] North Carolina State Board of Elections, "General Election - Official Results," November 6, 2012

[9] North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, "Endorsements by the Judicial Endorsement Committee," 2012

[10] HCPress.com, "NC Sierra Club Endorses Sam Ervin IV for N.C. Supreme Court, He Served 10 Years on N.C. Utilities Commission," October 29, 2012

[11] The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.

[12] An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.

[chapelhill-13] 13.0 ^13.1 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | School of Government, "History of North Carolina Judicial Elections," August 2020

[qualifications-14] North Carolina Judicial Branch, "Judicial Qualifications Summary," September 28, 2016

[NCSC-15] National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: North Carolina," accessed September 20, 2021

[16] Ballotpedia Election Administration Legislation Tracker, "North Carolina S382," accessed December 19, 2024

[articleiv-17] North Carolina General Assembly, "North Carolina Constitution - Article IV," accessed September 20, 2021 (Section 19)

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Sam Ervin IV

Contents

Biography

Elections

2022

General election

General election for North Carolina Supreme Court

Democratic primary election

Republican primary election

Republican primary for North Carolina Supreme Court

Campaign finance

2014

Endorsements

2012

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2022

Video for Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia survey responses

Analysis

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)

Sam
Ervin

State supreme court judicial selection in North Carolina

Qualifications

Chief justice

Vacancies

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

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