John Webb (jurist)
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John Webb is an American jurist and former Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court (1986-1998). Prior to serving on North Carolina's highest court, Justice Webb had been a Superior Court (trial) judge and a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Webb was born in Nash County, North Carolina but lived most of his life in Wilson, North Carolina where one of his law partners was future Governor Jim Hunt. He was a veteran of the United States Navy, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and from the law school at Columbia University.
Near the end of his tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Webb wrote the sole dissent in a case in which the Court upheld a trial court taking custody of children away from a gay father because of the father's relationship with a male. Justice Webb wrote: "There is virtually no showing that these acts by the defendant have adversely affected the two children. The test should be how the action affects the children and not whether we approve of it." (Pulliam v. Smith, 348 N.C. 616, 631 [N.C. 1998]) [1]
Justice Webb was nominated to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals by Bill Clinton, but his appointment was blocked by Sen. Jesse Helms.[citation needed]
