A nonpartisan citizens’ lobbying group and 10 North Carolina residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the lieutenant governor and legislative leaders of violating the state Constitution in December when they hastily called a special session to consider laws that transform state government.
The executive director of Common Cause, the good-government advocate, and residents from Pamlico, Randolph, Watauga, Guilford and Wake counties stood in front of the Legislative Building after filing their lawsuit. They shared with reporters their frustrations about two laws that shifted long-held power from the governor’s office to legislators, shifted some oversight of the state schools from the state board of education to the elected superintendent and overhauled the makeup of the state board of elections, ethics commission and county elections boards.