From 1976 until 1980, Cogburn worked as an
associate and then as a
partner at an
Asheville, North Carolina law firm. From 1980 until 1992, he worked in the United States Attorney's office in Asheville as an
Assistant United States Attorney, including as Chief Assistant United States Attorney from 1986 until 1988. From 1992 until 1995, Cogburn was a partner in a law firm in
Charlotte, North Carolina. From 1995 until 2004, he served as a federal magistrate judge on the
United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. He returned to private practice in 2004, working in Asheville, North Carolina. Obama renominated Cogburn on January 5, 2011, and he was reported out of the
Senate Judiciary Committee on February 3, 2011. He received his commission on March 11, 2011. In November 2024, Cogburn reversed his decision to take senior status and remain a full-time federal district court judge.
Notable rulings • On October 10, 2014, Cogburn struck down North Carolina's
gay marriage ban as
unconstitutional, opening the way for same-sex marriages in North Carolina to begin immediately. • Cogburn was a member of a three-judge panel that struck down the redistricting of certain North Carolina Congressional districts for relying too heavily on race. Cogburn also wrote a separate concurring opinion in that case. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court. The case,
Cooper v. Harris, was upheld by a 5–3 decision of the Supreme Court on May 22, 2017. ==References==