Legislative leaders fire North Carolina AG over felon voting rights appeal

(The Center Square) – North Carolina Republicans have lashed out against the attorney general’s office after the Wake County Superior Court ruled against the state and restored voting rights for more than 50,000 North Carolina felons.

The court ruled the state’s 1973 law that blocks North Carolinians who have been released from prison and placed on parole or probation from voting is unconstitutional.

Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, said Attorney General Josh Stein’s office refused to immediately appeal the case, prompting lawmakers Monday to remove the Department of Justice from the case.

“This law, passed by a Democrat-led legislature 50 years ago, provides a path for felons to regain voting rights. If a judge prefers a different path to regaining those rights, then he or she should run for the General Assembly and propose that path,” Daniel said in a statement. “Judges aren’t supposed to be oligarchs who issue whatever decrees they think best.”

Stein’s office said the attorney general could not appeal the case because the judges did not issue a written statement. The ruling Monday extends a temporary order by the court in September 2020 that restored the voting rights for people on community supervision because of unpaid restitution, fees and fines ahead of the November election.

The court ruled the law violated the Equal Protection Clause and the Ban on Property Qualifications in the North Carolina Constitution. Plaintiffs and their lawyers argued a person’s right to vote depended on their ability to pay debts associated with a previous felony conviction.

Lawyers for the North Carolina NAACP, Community Success Initiative, Justice Served NC and Wash Away Unemployment said the ruling resulted in the state’s largest expansion of voting rights since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Attorneys for Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore R-Cleveland, sent a letter Monday to assistant attorneys general Reuben Young and W. Swain Wood, advising them the General Assembly will hire an independent law firm.

The attorney general’s office is required by state law to represent the Legislature. However, the law allows the legislators to seek outside counsel when the constitutionality of “an act of the General Assembly” is challenged.

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