Doug Clark says the gay marriage ban is inaccurate.

The Greensboro News-Record columnist writes today that the preamble to the bill incorrectly argues that a 2008 case in the N.C. Court of Appeals could set a legal precedent for gay marriage.

That case, Mason v. Dwinell, involved a child visitation dispute over a lesbian couple who had conceived a child using artificial insemination and signed a parenting agreement. In her decision, Judge Martha Geer wrote that the fact the couple was gay was irrelevant.

The reference to Mason v. Dwinnell in this House bill could be intended to raise alarm. I suspect it also might be someone’s attempt to target Geer, who comes up for re-election next year. Portraying her as a California-liberal kind of judge could provide an avenue for attack by an aggressive conservative challenger (even though Geer was joined in her opinion by conservative Judge Sanford Steelman).

But as Geer and family law expert Suzanne Reynolds told Clark, there's no comparison with cases that have been used as legal "building blocks" to recognize gay marriage in other states. 

"It's not apples and oranges," Geer said. "It's apples and cows."

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan may help name two federal judges.

The first-term Democratic senator will likely give advice to President Obama, who may fill at least two of the four vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, reports former Domester David Ingram, now of the Legal Times.

She met with several possible nominees for the 4th Circuit a few weeks ago, but she does not appear to have moved quickly to set up an internal system for recommending anyone, says Burley Mitchell Jr., a former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court and a partner in the Raleigh office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

"She’s just gotten there," Mitchell says. "I don’t think that they've even worked out any of the mechanisms."

Hagan's office declined to comment on the process. Possible nominees include UNC-Chapel Hill law professor S. Elizabeth Gibson, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rich Leonard and N.C. Appeals Court Judge Jim Wynn.

Others who are interested include U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr.; private lawyers James Cooney III, Douglas Kingsbery and Robert Spearman; Southern Coalition for Social Justice director Anita Earls, N.C. Appeals Judge Martha Geer and N.C. Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson.

A Dome reader sends along one more name for the Fourth Circuit.

Following on the logic of other would-be judges, the legal insider writes that S. Elizabeth Gibson of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law may also be under consideration.

Gibson clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court and worked for a Washington, D.C., law firm before becoming a professor.

She was nominated under President Clinton as well.

Other names previously mentioned: James A. Beaty Jr., Charles Becton, Robert Spearman, Rich Leonard, Jim Wynn, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Martha Geer.

Four North Carolinians could be up for a federal judgeship.

President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate will have the opportunity next year to fill four vacancies on the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The Richmond-based court oversees cases from the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Because of its reputation as the most conservative appeals court in the country, many legal experts expect Obama and the Senate to attempt to move the court leftward.

Although a North Carolinian will not necessarily be nominated, the talk in Raleigh's legal circles is that four Tar Heels may be up for consideration:

Rich Leonard: A U.S. Bankrtupcy Court judge in the Eastern District, Leonard came close to an appointment before because of his friendship with former Sen. John Edwards.

Jim Wynn: A state Appeals Court judge, Wynn also came close during the Clinton administration but Sen. Jesse Helms blocked his appointment.

Patricia Timmons-Goodson: A state Supreme Court justice, Timmons-Goodson also made a lengthy list of potential Supreme Court picks by Scotusblog.com.

Martha Geer: A state Appeals Court judge, Geer handled a number of cases in the U.S. Appeals Court while in private practice handling corporate litigation.

The usual caveats apply. As with all conventional wisdom, these names have surfaced because they are the most obvious picks, but that doesn't mean they're the only choices.

A majority of state appellate judges are women.

After Cheri Beasley's win in November, eight of the 15 seats on the N.C. Court of Appeals are held by women. The court is the second-highest in the state after the Supreme Court.

Along with Beasley, the female judges are Linda Stephens, Linda McGee, Wanda Bryant, Ann Marie Calabria, Martha Geer, Barbara Jackson and Donna Stroud.

Although the posts are officially nonpartisan, Calabria, Jackson and Stroud are Republicans; the rest of the judges are Democrats. They are elected statewide.

Two other women, Jewel Ann Farlow and Kristin Ruth, lost campaigns in November.

State Supreme Court justices Robin Hudson, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Sarah Parker previously served as judges on the Court of Appeals.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Jackson's affiliation.

The state Court of Appeals threw out Bob Orr's lawsuit on Dell.

The former Supreme Court justice and Republican gubernatorial candidate had filed a lawsuit on behalf of taxpayers arguing that incentives used to lure the computer maker were unconstitutional.

But a three-judge panel led by Judge Martha Geer wrote that the constitutionality issue was settled by Maready v. City of Winston-Salem in 1996. She wrote that the incentives issue is now up to the legislature and the governor.

Orr said he was confident that the N.C. Institute on Constitutional Law, which he formerly headed, would appeal the case to the state Supreme Court. 

"There's no point in stopping now," he said.