One of those bills scrapped the State Board of Elections and merged its duties with the state Ethics Commission. It put the newly combined panel under the state’s existing Ethics Commission until this summer.
A Superior Court panel stayed that merger until Cooper’s lawsuit challenging the new arrangement could be heard.
But the Court of Appeals on Thursday stayed that lower court order, allowing the merger to go forward. Lawyers for Cooper have appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which lawyers on all sides of the case hope will act Friday.
Until then, the ethics panel is unsure whether it is sitting as the old Ethics Commission or the newly formed panel overseeing both elections and ethics laws.