Bob Orr’s career on the N.C. Court of Appeals was marked by a seemingly constant stream of statewide elections while balancing a heavy caseload on our state’s second highest court. The Court of Appeals during Bob’s 8 years was a 12 member court where the members sat in panels of 3 judges to hear appeals from the trial court’s of our state. Sworn in initially in September of 1986 after being appointed by Governor Martin to fill a vacancy, Bob’s tenure could have been short lived. Defeated only 2 months later along with the entire Republican judicial ticket, Governor Martin displayed great confidence in Bob by reappointing him shortly after the November election to a newly opened vacancy on the court.

For the next two years Bob balanced the challenging work of reviewing a wide range of cases on the court with trying to put together a successful campaign. For most of the next year Bob was the lone Republican on the Court but was later joined by another Martin appointee, Superior Court Judge Donnie Smith. The Court was a collegial place to work and partisanship played little role beyond good natured kidding. Judge Orr's evenhanded, logical opinions gained him the respect of attorneys across the state and many endorsements in the 1988 election. Upon winning that race (Judge Smith narrowly lost) Bob was again the lone Republican in the appellate judiciary and some attitudes seemed to change toward him as Republicans now started challenging incumbent Democrats on the courts.

Work on the court continued to consume time and energy when the 1992 election found Bob embroiled in yet another statewide campaign. He again was able to balance his judicial responsibilities with the campaign trail and edge out another win although again an exceptionally well qualified Martin appointee Judge Ralph Walker, was defeated.

A year later he was back campaigning this time for the N.C. Supreme Court. Elected to that court in 1994, Bob’s career on the Court of Appeals ended in early January of 1995. During his 8 years he had written over a thousand opinions and participated in the decision of another two thousand. From workers compensation to criminal cases, to personal injury and domestic cases, Bob’s work covered the gamut of legal issues. His work on the court continued to earn him the confidence and compliments of lawyers and judges as he tackled difficult cases and challenging issues month after month. However, an entirely new challenge awaited him as he moved to our state’s highest court and began a new chapter in his judicial career.

It was not long after he began his service on the Supreme Court that Justice Orr's reputation as an independent Jurist was clearly defined. Two cases emerged that drew sharp dissents from Justice Orr and would help define his career on the Court.

In the 1996 case of Maready v. The City of Winston-Salem, a resident-taxpayer filed suit against the city in order to prevent it from providing economic incentives from government coffers as a means to foster expansion by private industry.

In essence, the case boiled down to a single constitutional question: Whether local government grants to individual businesses, such as paying for a bank's employee parking garage or paying for the moving expenses of employee's spouses, could be construed as a "public purpose" under the North Carolina Constitution?”

While a majority on the Court decided that the deal’s projections for job creation and increased property values qualified as a public purpose, Justice Orr strongly disagreed. In a vigorous dissent, he argued that if the incentives at issue qualify as a public purpose, then virtually any incentive would. In closing, he asked rhetorically, What’s next? Can it seriously a public purpose if the city lures the next company by paying country club membership dues for the incoming firm’s top executives?

Just two years after tackling the “public purpose” doctrine, Justice Orr again faced off against the conventional wisdom concerning how citizens who are injured by state action may seek redress. In Stone v. N.C. Dept. of Labor, a feisty Justice Orr took exception to his colleagues’ decision preventing workers injured in a fire from seeking damages from state inspectors who failed to inspect the premises. In the majority’s view, the fire inspectors were among those protected by the so-called “Public Duty Doctrine” – a doctrine that for over 100 years insulated local law enforcement from lawsuits involving their official actions.

In Justice Orr’s view, the majority opinion not only expanded the doctrine’s strictly defined limits, it did so at the direct expense of the state’s citizenry. Why should an injured citizen suffer solely because of the government status of the negligent actor, Orr wrote, adding that such needless protection for state actors promotes incompetence while providing no meaningful incentive to provide quality governmental service.

But it was shortly after defeating Court of Appeals Judge Robert Hunter in his 2002 re-election bid that Bob would begin work on what many consider to be the cornerstone of his judicial legacy – the case commonly known simply as Leandro. After nearly ten years working its way through the lower courts, Leandro was argued the Supreme Court in early 2003 and was decided in July of 2004.

In his final opinion as a judge, Justice Orr, writing for a unanimous Court, decided that the student-plaintiffs in the case had been denied their constitutionally guaranteed opportunity to obtain a sound basic education. In defining the touchstones of such an education, the Court concluded that all the state’s children – be they rich or poor, Black or White – must be given a fair shot at gaining the knowledge and skills required to go to college or to land gainful employment in the workplace. Ultimately, the Court held the case’s evidence showed that the State had failed to provide that opportunity not only for the plaintiffs, but for many poorer students across North Carolina.

In the three years since Justice Orr stepped down from the bench in order to pursue state constitutional issues as director of a private foundation, he has referred to the Leandro opinion as the crown jewel of his Supreme Court career.

In reflecting back on the case after becoming Executive Director of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, Justice Orr referred to the Leandro opinion as the crown jewel of his Supreme Court career. “It’s clear now that the children of our state’s rural or poorer counties can expect an education that, at a minimum, will prepare them either for college or the job market,” Orr recently said at an education forum, “and that is nothing short of a milestone for North Carolinians of all stripes.” Educators from around the state continue to hail the Court’s decision and the former Justice says if he is elected Governor he will make implementing the reforms outlined in Leandro one of, if not, the top priority of his administration.