North Carolina’s highest court won’t fast-track appeals in governor’s lawsuits

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s highest court has decided it won’t fast-track appeals of results in two lawsuits initiated by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that challenged new laws that eroded his power to choose members of several boards and commissions.

The state Supreme Court, in orders released Friday, denied the requests from Republican legislative leaders sued by Cooper to hear the cases without waiting for the intermediate-level Court of Appeals to consider and rule first on arguments. The one-sentence rulings don’t say how individual justices came down on the petitions seeking to bypass the cases to the Supreme Court. Cooper’s lawyers had asked the court not to grant the requests.

The decisions could lengthen the process that leads to final rulings on whether the board alterations enacted by the GOP-controlled General Assembly in late 2023 over Cooper’s vetoes are permitted or prevented by the state constitution. The state Supreme Court may want to review the cases even after the Court of Appeals weighs in. No dates have been set for oral arguments at the Court of Appeals, and briefs are still being filed.

One lawsuit challenges a law that transfers the governor’s powers to choose state and local election board members to the General Assembly and its leaders. A three-judge panel of trial lawyers in March struck down election board changes, saying they interfere with a governor’s ability to ensure elections and voting laws are “faithfully executed.”

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