Court Roundup

Pennsylvania
Federal judge Conaboy dies at age 93
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Senior U.S. District Judge Richard P. Conaboy has died at a Pennsylvania hospital. He was 93.

His son-in-law Larry Moran, Sr., says Conaboy passed away Friday morning at Scranton Regional Hospital. He says Conaboy died with his wife holding his hand and surrounded by his 12 children. He didn’t give a cause of death.

He says his father-in-law was a “great man.”

The Times-Tribune reports former Vice President Joe Biden, also a Scranton native, visited Conaboy in the hospital on Sunday.

Conaboy was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in May 1979 to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was confirmed that July.

He was a Lackawanna County judge for 17 years before being named a federal judge. With Biden’s help, he was named chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and had that post 1994 to 1998.

North Carolina
Openly gay judge makes history with appeals court victory
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An appeals court seat winner last week set a milestone as the first openly gay person elected to a statewide office in North Carolina.

Unofficial results Tuesday show Court of Appeals Judge John Arrowood defeated challenger Andrew Heath by 49,000 votes from over 3.6 million cast.

Arrowood is a Charlotte Democrat who has served two stints on the intermediate-level Court of Appeals. Then-Gov. Mike Easley appointed him in 2007, but he lost a bid for a full term the next year. Current Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Arrowood to the court last year to fill another vacancy.

Arrowood previously served on the board of gay-rights group Equality North Carolina, which also identified him as first openly LGBTQ person elected to a statewide office in the South.