Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Rebekah Revels—the 2002 Miss North Carolina whose title was revoked when her former boyfriend told the Miss America pageant organization that he had taken topless photographs of her—filed a lawsuit against the Miss North Carolina pageant organization. On Friday, May 14, Judge Norley Cashwell threw out the lawsuit because Revels refused to cooperate with a ruling from an arbiter.

When the case went into arbitration last year, arbitrator G. Conley Ingram ordered Revels to show the photographs to attorneys representing the Miss North Carolina pageant organization. Revels refused; her lawyer, Barry Nakell, argued for her right to privacy.

Arbitrator Ingram dismissed the case, but Revels asked Judge Cashwell to reinstate it. On Friday, Cashwell released a ruling that the case would not be reinstated and that Revels must pay a $6,000 arbitration fee and $507.50 for the arbitrator’s expenses. Revels can appeal this decision but will not be allowed to refile her lawsuit.