In response to my Slate piece calling on the North Carolina governor to withdraw the cert. petition, Brent Wilcox points me to this statute which gives the General Assembly some power to hire outside counsel, but also give the governor the power to “employ counsel on behalf of the state.”

So it is not clear if the Governor’s attempt to withdraw would be successful. But at the very least, it looks like he could try to withdraw and file something expressing his disagreement with the General Assembly’s position in the litigation.