New Commission Member: James Beaty, Jr.
James Arthur Beaty Jr. was recently appointed to the Commission by Governor Josh Stein. He is a former Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Beaty grew up in Thomasville, North Carolina. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Carolina University in 1971 with Honors and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1974. He entered private practice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1974, and in 1981 he became a judge of the Superior Court of Forsyth County, North Carolina, a position he held until 1994.
On August 25, 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated Beaty to fill a vacancy on the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina created by the retirement of Judge Richard C. Erwin. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Beaty in a voice vote on October 7, 1994. Beaty became chief judge of that court in 2006. He is based in Winston-Salem. He assumed senior status on June 30, 2014, and retired from active service on January 31, 2018.