The Carolina Two Step

By GENE NICHOL

The Republican North Carolina General Assembly is as exhausting as Donald Trump. Okay, not that exhausting. But they are relentless, unceasing, all-pervasive, ever-greedy, and ruthlessly shameless in their abuse of power. Think of how much energy, and how much taxpayer money, we’ve spent over the last 15 years because North Carolina Republicans won’t comply with the constitution.

They violate our fundamental charter like it’s their job. Like they took an oath to violate rather than to comply with it. No wonder a federal court wrote five years ago that it had lost confidence in the General Assembly’s “capacity and willingness” to comply with the constitution.” Me too.

What do I mean? In late November, with the election over, and the governor’s race, once again, not having gone in the Republicans’ favor, our lawmakers returned to what has become the “Carolina Two-Step”.

If the people of North Carolina commit the heresy of electing a Democratic governor; Senate Republican leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore and their crews immediately start stripping the chief executive of essential powers. No need to turn over the keys to the governors’ mansion. Just burn the place down.

Josh Stein is getting the same treatment Roy Cooper got when he came in. Republicans, in 2016, were furious that Pat McCrory lost the election and they couldn’t find a way to overturn it. So they unconstitutionally gutted Cooper’s powers.

National commentators called it a ‘legislative coup” – the “kind of thing one might expect to see in Venezuela.” Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin and Michigan decided to give it a try, following, they said, the “North Carolina playbook.” We’re the grand masters of democratic demolition.

The bill the legislature just passed will strip the governor of power to appoint the members of the State Board of Elections. It’s something of a holy grail for Berger. His folks tried to steal the elections authority last year, but a trial court blocked it. They proposed a similar constitutional amendment eight years ago, but voters rejected it by over 60%.

It’s stunning to the Senate leader that there should be any position in North Carolina government he can’t place under his thumb. Having made a mockery of our elections through partisan gerrymandering, Berger said he just wants to take over the election board to be “fair”. Does he ever.

This time the Republicans, almost comically, seek to give the governor’s appointment power to the state auditor. That wise policy choice only became obvious when Republican Dave Boliek won the auditor’s race. Next year, perhaps, the Commissioner of Agriculture can become “the commander in chief of the state military” and the Commissioner of Insurance will get the pardon power.

The move is as unconstitutional as the day is long. The N.C. Constitution declares “the executive power of the state shall be vested in the Governor.” (Art. III, sec.1). The governor, and no one else, has the power to “take care that the law be faithfully executed”. (Art. III sec. 5). Tar Heels have one governor. They don’t expect the auditor to do his job. No one actually thinks they do.

But there’s something darker at play here too. Republicans aren’t much worried about law. State constitutional review is lodged, finally, in the N.C. Carolina Supreme Court. And, frankly, our five Republicans aren’t actually judges. They do what’s demanded of them. Their impressive robes are fraudulent. They only pose. Even if it means we sacrifice our structure of government in the process. Get ready for the Commissioner of Labor to give the State of the State Address.

Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and in 2015 started the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund after the UNC Board of Governors closed the state-funded Poverty Center for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly.

From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2025

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