Rhoda Bryan Billings (born September 30, 1937) is an American lawyer and a former

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

of the

North Carolina Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists ...

Life

Billings is a native of

Wilkesboro, North Carolina Wilkesboro is a town in and the county seat of Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,687 at the 2020 census. The town is located along the south bank of the Yadkin River, directly opposite the town of North Wilkesbor ...

. She earned her

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from

Wake Forest University School of Law Wake Forest University School of Law is the law school of Wake Forest University, a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Established in 1894, Wake Forest University School of Law is an American Bar Association (ABA) accred ...

in 1966. She served four years as a state District Court judge (1968–1972). From 1982 to 1984 Billings served on the Board of Governors of the

North Carolina Bar Association The North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) is the voluntary (non-mandatory) bar association of the U.S. state of North Carolina. NCBA membership is voluntary and tax money is not involved in its support. In contrast, the North Carolina State Bar a ...

. Governor James G. Martin, a fellow Republican, appointed her to the

as an associate justice in 1985, after the resignation of Justice Earl W. Vaughn. When Chief Justice Joseph Branch retired, Martin then appointed her Chief Justice in 1986, making her the second woman to head the Court. She was defeated by James G. Exum in the election for chief justice in November of that year. Justice Billings became a law professor at Wake Forest University, retiring in 2003 as Professor Emeritus. Billings was named in 2008 to the National Committee on the Right to Counsel established by the

Constitution Project The Constitution Project is a non-profit think tank in the United States whose goal is to build bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions. Its founder and president is Virginia Sloan. The Constitution Project’s work ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

's Public Policy Institute and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.

References

External links

NC Supreme Court Historical Society
Wake Forest University School of Law alumni Wake Forest University faculty Chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court Living people 1937 births Women chief justices of state supreme courts in the United States People from Wilkesboro, North Carolina Constitution Project American women academics 21st-century American women 20th-century American women judges 20th-century North Carolina state court judges {{NorthCarolina-state-judge-stub

Life

See also

References

External links