North Carolina’s current governor and his successor are suing GOP lawmakers over the newly passed Senate Bill 382. The law, which survived Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto this month, includes some future funding for Western North Carolina disaster recovery but wraps in expansive changes to executive branch powers.
During a visit to Asheville Thursday, N.C. Attorney General and Governor-elect Josh Stein criticized Republican state legislators.
“It’s about power grabs and trying to score points when folks need help, and they need help today,” Stein told BPR in an interview. “So, I’m immensely frustrated for the people of Western North Carolina that there really wasn’t any meaningful support for them, yet they called this bill ‘disaster relief’ as a cloak for their political gamesmanship.”
All WNC Republican representatives joined in the vote to override Cooper's veto, even while some acknowledged that they were disappointed in the politicization of the bill and the lack of more specific Helene funding, BPR reported.
House Speaker Tim Moore called the bill “imperative” for the future of North Carolina Republicans before the vote in a podcast interview.
“This action item today is going to be critical to making sure that North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket and move the country in the right direction,” Moore explained.
North Carolina political expert Chris Cooper says that this shift in powers by an outgoing legislature is nothing new in the state.
“There's a good bit of precedence for it, we tend to see these kinds of power grab bills occur in lame-duck sessions in states like North Carolina,” Chris Cooper said.
However, Chris Cooper says this is the broadest sweep of power changes in one bill that he’s seen.
The lawsuit, which seeks an injunction, cites past litigation – both from Gov. Cooper, a Democrat, in 2018, and former Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, in 2016 – when lawmakers altered executive branch authority. led by
Part of Senate Bill 382 removes the governor's appointment power to the State Board of Elections. When Gov. Cooper was first elected in 2016, Republican legislators tried to strip the governor's authority on election officials' appointments. That action later was reversed in the courts, which ruled the power grab unconstitutional.
In the new law, Republicans are attempting to give North Carolina's state auditor the power to appoint elections board members. The incoming state auditor is a Republican.
“It's worth noting that the state auditor does end up with control over elections and election appointments, we would be the only state in the entire country where that is true,” Chris Cooper said.
The lawsuit against House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger and Commander of the State Highway Patrol Freddy Johnson argues that the new law violates the separation of powers that are a “constitutional cornerstone” of the state. Beyond this point, the lawsuit focuses almost solely on the changes around public safety.
Chris Cooper says that past changes to the governor’s authority have drawn scrutiny over what courts see as a question of separation of powers.
“Ultimately, the state supreme court said, ‘hey look, we have separation of powers for a reason. The legislative branch can’t just all of a sudden tell the executive branch how to act who will point in what powers various people should have. So it's using that separation of powers idea to say this is a bridge too far,” Chris Cooper said.
The new law removed the control of the Highway Patrol from the Department of Public Safety and establishes the commander of the patrol as leading the force. The law also keeps Johnson, the current commander of the highway patrol, in the position until 2030. The position is historically appointed by the governor.
The lawsuit argues that Hurricane Helene is a recent crucial example of the need for the governor’s “clear authority as the chief decisionmaker” in an emergency scenario.
There are many changes to the executive branch that are not included in this lawsuit. Chris Cooper explains that North Carolina’s governor is one of the weakest in the country. This fact stands to reason why the law also expands changes to other members of the executive branch.
“It's very difficult to keep stripping powers away from an office that is bordering on naked to start with,” Chris Cooper said. “They went pretty far by stripping away more power from the governor, the lieutenant governor, the superintendent of public instruction, the attorney general. Other than Elaine Marshall, Secretary of State, every one of those State offices that were held by Democrats saw at least some take away from their power.”
Because the law is so wide-reaching, Chris Cooper expects that more lawsuits should be expected soon.
Felicia Sonmez also contributed to this report
