More than six months after Election Day, Allison Riggs is sworn into the NC Supreme Court
State Supreme Court Justice takes the oath of office in the old North Carolina House chamber on May 13, 2025. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
More than six months after Election Day, Allison Riggs is sworn into the NC Supreme Court
by Brandon Kingdollar, NC Newsline
May 13, 2025
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs was sworn in Tuesday after a six-month wait, bringing to an end a months-long saga that saw tens of thousands of ballots challenged and ultimately counted.
Riggs took the oath of office, administered by her fellow Democrat on the court Justice Anita Earls, before the packed old House chamber of the North Carolina State Capitol. She received a minute-long standing ovation after swearing the oath and gave remarks on the importance of defending the right to vote and choosing justices who will uphold the rule of law.
“I learned from the people who fought, bled, and died for the right to have a democracy where we all get to be heard,” Riggs said. “The reason I was able to stand resolute, not discouraged and not intimidated, is because I knew that I stood arm-in-arm with you protecting that precious and fundamental right to vote.”
The ceremony came just six days after Republican state Court of Appeals judge Jefferson Griffin conceded the election, concluding a months-long effort to overturn the results of the race in an attempt to turn a 5-2 Republican majority on the state’s highest court to a 6-1 margin. That challenge was halted by a federal district judge appointed by President Donald Trump on May 5, but not before Republican judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court ruled in Griffin’s favor.
While she did not refer to Griffin by name, Riggs blasted his long and winding election challenge that sought to dispose of tens of thousands of ballots in an effort to overturn her victory.
“You won this election more than six months ago, but it was fewer than seven days ago that this race finally ended,” Riggs told the crowd of her supporters. “That’s more than 180 days after Election Day, nearly $2 million spent, more than 68,000 voters’ lawful votes put at risk, taxpayers’ time and resources wasted, immeasurable damage done to our democracy.”
She condemned all “efforts to undermine our rights and our democracy” and pledged to protect the rights of all North Carolinians, regardless of whether they voted for her.
“Disappointed politicians should not use courts to try and get a different election outcome,” she added. “It is crucial for you to use your precious right to vote to elect candidates and especially judges who will put the Constitution, the rule of law, and their solemn oath above their own personal political ambitions and ideologies.”
Ahead of the swearing in, Earls paid tribute to Riggs’ parents and husband for giving her much-needed support throughout all the tribulations of the election, prompting applause for both her mother and her husband who were in attendance at Tuesday’s ceremony. And she praised the newly sworn-in justice for her intelligence as well as her “passion and heart,” something Earls said was evident even when they first met during the redistricting process in 2009.
“She is a brilliant jurist, she finds the issues I miss — we don’t always agree, but that’s because we have the courage of our convictions, we understand deliberation, we can toss ideas off each other,” Earls said. “I am so grateful to each one of you for bringing her back, because I just couldn’t survive the next two years without her.” Earls’ term is up in 2026, and she is expected to seek reelection.
Among those in attendance at the swearing-in ceremony were Isaac Jenkins and Janice Sanders-Moye of Concerned Citizens for Community Action, a nonprofit that worked to ensure votes for Riggs were counted across the state. Sanders-Moye said she was “so glad” people stood up on Riggs’s behalf and called it a “great honor” to attend the ceremony.
“We worked 14 different counties to help get her elected, and that’s why we were so dissatisfied when they held up the election when they would do the recount because we knew that the vote was accurate. But we held out to the end,” Jenkins said.
Clad in a Riggs campaign sweatshirt she picked up during the election, Leisa Greathouse, a retired curator with the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said it was a privilege to be an “eyewitness to history” at Tuesday’s ceremony.
“That’s one reason [I came]. Second reason, trying to secure the democracy that I see being chiseled away at, little by little, our Constitution,” Greathouse said. “This beacon of light is a great hope for the whole country, not just for North Carolina.”
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.
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