Cooper v. Berger
| Decision Date | 26 January 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 52PA17-2,52PA17-2 |
| Citation | 370 N.C. 392,809 S.E.2d 98 |
| Parties | Roy A. COOPER, III, in his official capacity as Governor of The State of North Carolina v. Philip E. BERGER, in his official capacity as President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate; Timothy K. Moore, in his official capacity as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives; and The State of North Carolina |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, L.L.P., by Daniel F.E. Smith, Jim W. Phillips, Jr., Greensboro, and Eric M. David, for plaintiff-appellant/appellee.
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Raleigh, by D. Martin Warf and Noah H. Huffstetler, III, for legislator defendant-appellants/appellees.
Joshua H. Stein, Attorney General, by Alexander McC. Peters, Senior Deputy Attorney General, for defendant-appellee State of North Carolina.
Poyner Spruill LLP, Raleigh, by Andrew H. Erteschik, for Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law and Democracy North Carolina, amici curiae.
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., by John R. Wester, Charlotte, J. Dickson Phillips, III, Chapel Hill, Adam K. Doerr, and Kevin Crandall, Charlotte, for James B. Hunt, Jr., and Burley B. Mitchell, Jr., amici curiae.
On 8 November 2016, plaintiff Roy A. Cooper, III, was elected Governor of the State of North Carolina for a four-year term office commencing on 1 January 2017. On 16 December, 2016, the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 4 and House Bill 17, which abolished the existing State Board of Elections and the existing State Ethics Commission; created a new Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement; and appointed the existing members of the State Ethics Commission to serve as the members of the Bipartisan State Board. The legislation in question was signed into law by former Governor Patrick L. McCrory on 16 December 2016. On 17 March 2017, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court, Wake County, convened pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 1-267.1(b1), determined that the legislation in question violated the separation-of-powers provisions of the North Carolina Constitution by unconstitutionally impinging upon the Governor's ability to faithfully execute the laws. Cooper v. Berger , No. 16 CVS 15636, 2017 WL 1433245 (N.C. Super. Ct. Wake County, Mar. 17, 2017).
The newly-enacted legislation provided, in pertinent part, that:
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