Christensen 5
March 15, 2019
To the N.C. Awards Committee:
I would like to support the nomination of U.S. District Court Judge W. Earl Britt for the North Carolina Award based on his long and distinguished service to justice in the state.
Judge Britt has served 39 years on the federal bench in Eastern North Carolina, dispensing justice with honor and uncommon common sense on some of the major hot button issues of the day, including voting rights, prison overcrowding, hog waste, white supremacists, gang activity, labor corruption, as well as a wide variety of criminal cases.
In one of his more high profile recent cases, Britt was part of a three-judge federal panel that in 2018 threw out the state's congressional redistricting plan as unconstitutional The congressional plan has been widely viewed as one of the most extreme cases of gerrymandering in the country.
Judge Britt has also been an innovator, helping establish the Eastern District of North Carolina's reentry court, known as HOPE, to help supervise and rehabilitate non violent offenders who have a history of substance abuse.
Through his extraordinary tenure, Judge Britt has earned a reputation as an excellent jurist, respected by the bar and his peers. That is one reason why he has been repeatedly honored by the people who know him best. The North Carolina Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award to acknowledge outstanding community service.
His colleagues named him president of the Federal Judges Association.
But you would never know he won such honors if you met him, carrying himself like the down-to-earth country lawyer he once was. Perhaps these were lessons learned on the Robeson County farm and general merchandise store of his father.
Judge Britt's public service is hardly surprising if you know his family. His elder brother, David Britt, was a highly regarded Speaker of the N.C. House who helped modernize the state's judicial system and who became a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals and the N.C. Supreme Court.
Judge Britt's public service reaches beyond the courtroom. He served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors and as a trustee of Southeastern Community College and Pembroke State University. He also served in the U.S. Army.
Appointed to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, Judge Britt served on the court until 1997. Since then has served as a senior judge carrying a partial load of court cases, helping alleviate a problem in the Eastern District of having too few judges — due to political gridlock in Washington — handling too many cases.
One of the things I have learned as a political/government reporter and columnist for The News and Observer for 45 years is that our system of self-government will only work if good people offer themselves. Through his hard work, wisdom, and ability to take the heat, Judge Britt has proven himself a worthy recipient of the North Carolina Award.
Sincerely,
Rob Christensen