State Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin has appointed a three-judge panel to review two cases over ballot language for four proposed constitutional amendments.
Judges Forrest Donald Bridges, Thomas H. Lock and Jeffery K. Carpenter will preside over the two lawsuits filed by Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina NAACP and Clean Air Carolina. Bridges is a registered Democrat serving Cleveland and Lincoln counties; Lock is registered to vote as an unaffiliated and serves Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties; and Carpenter is a registered Republican who serves Union County.
There is not yet a hearing set in the cases. Attorneys from all sides argued Tuesday before Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway at hearings for temporary restraining orders to prevent election ballots from being printed with the constitutional amendments on them.
Ridgeway took the restraining order arguments under advisement and did not make a decision. He referred the case to Martin to appoint the three-judge panel because he believed it was a facial constitutional challenge and not an “as applied” challenge, like the plaintiffs argued.
These are the constitutional amendments with ballot language that is being challenged in the two cases: one requiring a photo identification, one that caps the state income tax at 7 percent, one that transfers Cooper’s power to appoint members of state boards and commissions to the General Assembly and another that strips his power to appoint judicial vacancies and also gives it, although in a somewhat convoluted fashion, to the General Assembly.
18 CVS 9805 Order Assigning 3JP by NC Policy Watch on Scribd
18 CVS 9806 Order Appointing 3JP by NC Policy Watch on Scribd
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