APNewsBreak: N Carolina chief justice to resign next month

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin is leaving the state’s Supreme Court after 20 years to become a Virginia law school dean.

The resignation means Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper gets to decide who fills the Republican’s seat on the court and who the next chief justice is.

Martin told The Associated Press on Friday of his decision to resign the chief justice’s post he’s held since 2014 at the end of February. He’ll become dean of Regent University law school in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Martin has been a trial or appeals court judge for over 25 years. He tells the AP he’s still young enough at age 55 to do something different and wanted to work with young people seeking to make a difference in the world.