As you may recall from late last year, North Carolina Republicans responded to their narrow loss of the governorship in November with a flurry of lame duck legislation limiting the governor’s (already relatively weak) powers. Not to say it was a wise choice, but they were following in the tradition of North Carolina Democrats, who had done exactly the same thing back when they held majority control of the state legislature.
The measures that the general assembly passed included a return to partisan judicial elections (Democrats had abolished these when they realized it was costing them a lot of judgeships), election panels with equal party representation (instead of the governor appointing party majorities), and a requirement for state Senate confirmation of gubernatorial cabinet appointees.
Democrats went to court right away to prevent these laws from going into effect. The state Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the measure that would take away the governor’s power over election administration. And as of last week state judges had also temporarily put the Cabinet confirmation hearings on hold, despite the state constitution’s grant of “advice and consent” powers to the legislature with respect to the Cabinet — quite similar to the language in the federal constitution, actually.
Today, a three-judge panel has lifted the stay on the confirmation process. This appears to mean that the confirmation hearings will go forward as the case is litigated. It’s a small victory for Republicans, who passed these laws in a perfectly constitutional and legal, if slightly underhanded, way.
Quite a few important North Carolina issues are in front of the courts right now. A few months ago, a federal judge tried to strike down the state’s legislative redistricting map and force new elections in the fall of this year. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that fairly radical ruling, but the map remains the subject of litigation, in addition to the matters before the state courts.
Republicans’ legislative majority in North Carolina is large enough to override the veto of the new Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. So between the political fighting and the number of measures currently tied up in the courts, things could get even more contentious there this election cycle than they were in the last one.
