NORTH CAROLINA (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A controversial North Carolina law is the focus of another lawsuit filed by Governor Josh Stein. Stein’s lawyers alleged SB 382 steal his powers by making changes to who he can appoint to state appellate courts.
SB 382 was a massive bill that promised Helene relief money but also changed some powers held by top state officials.
“That’s the type of legislation this was, it’s a big spending bill but it also changes, very substantially, the power of the Governor to appoint officials in the executive,” said Eric Heberlig, a professor at UNC Charlotte.
It became law in December after the Republican-controlled General Assembly successfully overrode the veto of the then Governor, Roy Cooper.
Among other things, 382 required appellate appointees come from a list of three compiled by the same political party of the judge leaving the post. That meant if a seat was held by a Republican, it would stay in Republican control and vice versa.
In a statement to Queen City News, Governor Stein accused lawmakers of trying to overturn the will of voters by changing his ability to pick who he wants to serve on the bench.
“These provisions of SB382 are partisan power grabs that thwart North Carolina voters’ decisions at the ballot box. The people gave the Governor the authority to fill appellate judicial vacancies more than 150 years ago—yet, a power-hungry General Assembly seeks to overturn the people’s will by stripping this responsibility from the Governor. Furthermore, the people overwhelmingly made their choice for Governor clear in the last election. I filed this lawsuit to ensure that their vote is respected, to restore balance to our state’s branches of government, and to put our Constitution ahead of power grabs.”
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Heberlig said it seems an adversarial relationship between NC’s Democratic Governor and Republican-controlled legislature has become the status quo, “The Republican majority in the legislature and the Democratic Governors have not seen eye to eye on many policy issues in the past several years, particularly the ones that get the most media attention are the most divisive.”
Senate Pro Tem Phil Berger, who was named in Stein’s lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
