Neighbors on Call’s NC Policy Update for 3/28/22

Voting Rights

• On Monday, March 21, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in one of North Carolina’s voter ID law cases, NAACP v. Berger, not about the merits of the law, but about who should argue the case. The office of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has represented the Board of Elections to defend the law’s constitutionality thus far, but Republican lawmakers who passed the law want to take over its defense. The Republican legislators claim that because Democrats like Stein are often against voter ID laws, the Attorney General’s office cannot defend the law as vigorously as they would. The NAACP, which brought the lawsuit originally, supported leaving Stein’s office in charge of the law’s defense. The U.S. Supreme Court may take some time to reach a decision on this side issue, leaving the underlying lawsuit on hold until then.

The Judiciary

• Last Monday Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court Paul Newby replaced the Superior Court Judge on the Leandro school funding case. Superior Court Judge David Lee, who had been overseeing the case, had ordered lawmakers to provide $1.7 billion to adequately fund North Carolina schools. Newby replaced Lee, a Democrat, with Superior Court Judge Michael L. Robinson, a Republican, and provided no reason for the replacement. The NC Supreme Court agreed the same day to hear an appeal of Lee’s order to fund the Leandro plan, and they directed the trial judge (now Robinson) to review whether the order should be amended based on the recently approved state budget. The replacement took place during the same week that Carolyn Dubay, executive director of the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission, seems to have been pushed to resign over a memo the Commission published reminding judges not to get involved in political campaigns during cycles when they are not up for election.

Neighbors on Call’s NC Policy Update for 3/21/22

Fair Representation

• On Thursday Republicans in the NCGA announced they were petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state courts’ intervention in the process of drawing North Carolina’s congressional district map, arguing once more that the NC Supreme Court’s rejection of the state legislator-drawn map violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court already declined to weigh in on the map before the midterm elections, but they could take up the case in the fall, and any decision stemming from the case could have long-lasting impacts on the redistricting process in North Carolina and other states.

Economic and Housing Policy

• On March 10 the NC House passed a resolution urging Congress to provide state pension plans with a legal pathway to recover Russian assets. The resolution, which was requested by State Treasurer Dale Folwell, has no legal effect, but rather represents a symbolic effort to encourage Congress to change an existing law. At least 19 other states have proposed or passed similar resolutions through legislation or executive order, but North Carolina’s is unique in not directly requiring divestment of the state’s pension funds.

LGBTQ Rights

• On March 11 the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling about domestic violence protection orders, affirming that such orders must apply in same-sex dating cases. The high court’s vote on the ruling was 4-3, with all three registered Republicans dissenting. Previously North Carolina had been the only state in the country that did not allow domestic violence protection orders for people in same-sex relationships who weren’t currently or formerly married or cohabitating.

Neighbors on Call’s NC Policy Update for 3/14/22

COVID-19

• On Wednesday NC Senate Republicans failed to win enough votes to override Governor Cooper’s veto of a bill that would have made masks optional in all North Carolina public schools. Though two Democrats in the NC Senate had joined the Republicans to vote for SB 173 (the “Free the Smiles Act”) during its initial passage, they declined to join the Republicans in voting to override the Governor’s veto. Earlier that day, a new study was published in the journal Pediatrics showing that schools with required masking reduced in-school COVID-19 transmission by 87% compared to schools with no such requirements.

Fair Representation

• On Monday, in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Republican leaders in the NCGA to stop a North Carolina congressional district map drawn by a trial court from taking effect. The trial court had not accepted a congressional map redrawn by Republicans in the NCGA in response to the NC Supreme Court’s striking down their original maps, instead choosing to use a map drawn by “special masters” – independent experts appointed by the court. Republicans had argued that it was against the U.S. Constitution for state courts to intervene in the redistricting process in this way, an argument that filings by the groups who had originally sued over Republican-drawn maps stated was extreme and counter to precedent.