N.C. judges-bill veto overridden

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a Republican bill that would reduce the number of judges on the state Court of Appeals.

Several hours apart, the state’s Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to override the veto, marking the second time in a week that the Legislature has succeeded in bypassing Cooper to enact a law that takes power away from the state’s Democratic chief executive.

The measure shrinks the intermediate-level court from 15 judges to 12 through attrition. It prevents Cooper from replacing the next three judges who retire.

Republicans controlling the Legislature have worked for months to curtail Cooper’s powers. The governor has fought back against those moves, but with Republicans holding veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate, Cooper is powerless to stop such bills from moving through the pipeline.

Instead, Cooper has filed lawsuits and publicly blasted Republican lawmakers.

“Instead of partisan power grabs, the legislature should be focused on creating good jobs, improving our schools and helping communities rebuild from Hurricane Matthew,” Cooper wrote this month in an online post. The October storm caused billions of dollars in damage in eastern North Carolina.

Cooper on Friday vetoed the Court of Appeals measure, as well as one that merges the state elections and ethics boards and divides the board equally between Democrats and Republicans. The Legislature on Tuesday overrode the veto on the elections board bill.

Cooper sued successfully last month to overturn a similar election board law that GOP legislators approved two weeks before he took office.

The GOP says Cooper wants to tip the appeals court in favor of the state Democratic Party. And without the new election board law, the majority of election board positions would continue to remain with the party of the sitting governor, as state law has directed for more than a century.

Cooper “wants to rig the system for his own benefit,” House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said in a news release after Cooper vetoed the two bills.

More than $760,000 has already been spent on private lawyers hired by Cooper and legislative leaders in disputes over challenged laws this year, according to documents.

Cooper defeated GOP Gov. Pat McCrory in November by 10,000 votes. Lawmakers began chipping away at Cooper’s powers the week after McCrory conceded the race in early December.

A former attorney general, Cooper isn’t afraid of going to court. Two days before he was sworn in as governor, he filed his first lawsuit to challenge Republican moves.

One law he challenged — the right for the Senate to confirm his Cabinet picks — was upheld by a three-judge panel. Cooper has appealed.

Republican leaders say they are not targeting Cooper personally. They say they simply want to readjust how power is shared in the aftermath of a state Supreme Court decision in 2016 that favored gubernatorial authority.

The ruling “fundamentally changed the way government operates in North Carolina,” Rep. David Lewis, a Republican, said Wednesday.

Democrats say the measures are thinly veiled efforts to weaken Cooper and control the state’s judiciary. The appeals court bill hasn’t been requested by the court or any judicial group.

“It’s certainly not necessary. You have to ask yourself, ‘why the change?’” House Minority Leader Darren Jackson said.