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Election Update


  • “A hand-recount of votes in North Carolina’s election was not enough for state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley to overcome her colleague’s lead in the race to retain her seat." On Saturday, Justice Beasley conceded the race to her Republican challenger, North Carolina Supreme Court Judge Paul Newby.


  • “With his win, Republicans have swept all of North Carolina’s statewide judicial races in the 2020 elections. Victories by Republicans Newby, Phil Berger Jr. and Tamara Barringer leave Democrats with a narrow 4-3 majority on the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court.”


COVID-19

  • “The spread of the coronavirus across the state and record hospitalizations prompted Gov. Roy Cooper to issue a modified stay-at-home order effective Friday that requires businesses to close from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. except those that sell food, gas or pharmaceuticals.”

  • “After the state Department of Labor in November rejected a petition to mandate emergency workplace rules, several North Carolina advocacy groups are asking the Wake County Superior “Court for a judicial review of the denial.”


Education Policy


  • More than 150 UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members published an open letter to the university administration urging abandoning Spring semester plans to increase the number of in-person classes and triple the number of students living on campus next semester.

Economic and Housing Policy

  • Governor Cooper and Republican legislators reached an agreement and released $30 million in funding to boost access to broadband services in rural areas throughout NC. The monies had been held back due to squabbles regarding the state’s disposition of the federal Cares Act funds, but the agreement allows for a work-around to avoid spending the monies by the end of 2020.

Environmental Policy


  • In a majority decision the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the North Carolina Utilities Commission must reconsider electricity rates and potentially shift some of the cost of coal ash pollution cleanup from consumers to Duke Energy and its shareholders.

Criminal Justice


  • On Friday, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Vincent Rozier Jr. appointed a “special master” to oversee parts of the North Carolina prison system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Judge Rozier, who has been overseeing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of conditions in state prisons, cited the state’s “ongoing failure to make modifications to a key program that would allow the state to decrease its prison population” as a reason for appointing the special master.


  • Although not yet public, the final report from Governor Cooper’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice is expected to include over 100 different recommendations on how to address racial inequalities in North Carolina’s criminal justice system.


Election Update

  • A statewide machine recount of all ballots cast in the election for Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court was completed last week and showed Republican Justice Paul Newby with a lead of just 401 votes (out of nearly 5.4 million votes cast) over Democratic Chief Justice Cheri Beasley. Following the completion of this statewide recount, Chief Justice Beasley formally requested a 3% statewide hand-to-eye recount, which will begin this week. Once this partial hand-to-eye recount is completed, the State Board of Elections will review the results to determine whether a full statewide hand-to-eye recount is in order.


Voting Rights


Health Care Policy

  • On Wednesday advocacy groups that had sued the UNC Health Care System and Nash Hospitals, Inc., for systematic discrimination against blind patients announced that a settlement had been reached with one of the two defendants. Plaintiffs had sued two years ago, alleging that blind patients did not receive written communications in a format that would be accessible to them. Nash Hospitals, Inc., agreed to pay $150,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees; the suit will continue against UNC Health Care System.


  • On Friday Governor Cooper convened a new bipartisan council to address North Carolina’s high rate of uninsured people. The North Carolina Council for Health Care Coverage, which includes NC Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen along with legislators from both parties, businesspeople, and doctors, will study other states’ health care coverage expansion policies and produce a guide to increase coverage in North Carolina.


Women’s Rights and LGBTQ Rights


Criminal Justice

  • On Tuesday key provisions of the Second Chance Act went into effect, allowing many North Carolinians with criminal records to have those records expunged. Nonviolent misdemeanor convictions from seven or more years ago are eligible for expunction, as well as dismissed charges or “not guilty” findings for those charged with a crime. Dismissed charges or “not guilty” findings not petitioned for expunction by those charged will be automatically expunged a year after the law took effect (December 1, 2021).


Election Update



Environmental Policy

  • On Thursday the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling against Murphy-Brown/Smithfield in a series of nuisance suits against the company. The ruling affirmed an earlier District Court decision that industrialized hog farming operations on a farm in Bladen County, a contract grower for Murphy-Brown/Smithfield Foods, unduly harmed its neighbors’ quality of life. The appellate judges sided with Murphy-Brown’s lawyers in one particular, however: they ruled that there would need to be a rehearing governing the amount of punitive damages issued to plaintiffs, this time without mention of corporate finances or executive compensation. Smithfield released a statement later in the day on Thursday that they had reached a settlement, the details of which will not be disclosed.

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