Bill to require legislative approval of lawsuit settlements advances in North Carolina Senate
(The Center Square) – A bill that would require legislative leaders to sign off on lawsuit settlements involving the General Assembly is advancing through the North Carolina Senate.
Senate Bill 360 was filed by the chairs of the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee in response to a legal settlement that changed election rules ahead of the November election.
Legislative leaders said the negotiations were done in secret with party allies, cutting out the General Assembly, which was a co-defendant in the case. The leaders of the Senate and House are Republicans, while the state’s election board is majority Democrat.
“No agency head should have the ability to change state law on their own or secretly settle a lawsuit with political allies,” Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, said. “This bill intends to put an end to these ‘sue-and-settle’ schemes. Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell and Attorney General Josh Stein lost the trust of the voters last year when they changed election laws in the middle of an election.”
Stein and the state election board agreed to the settlement in September with Democracy North Carolina, the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans and seven voters after they sued for changes in the voting process to protect older voters from the spread of COVID-19.
The board voted to allow absentee ballots to be accepted up to nine days instead of three days ahead of Election Day and to allow voters to use a signed affidavit to support the validity of their absentee ballots, among other changes during the November election.
According to law, when the state is named in a lawsuit, the governor represents the executive branch and the General Assembly leadership represents the legislative branch of the state.
House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland; Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham; the North Carolina Republican Party; former President Donald Trump’s campaign and other GOP organizations challenged the agreement up to the Supreme Court. The courts could not overrule the changes because of the timing of the elections.
The bill’s sponsors said the legislation would “prevent state agencies from circumventing the lawmaking process and changing laws through settlements with friendly plaintiffs.” Bell has argued the settlement temporally changed the rules and not state laws.
SB 360 was approved Thursday by the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate. The full Senate may vote on the measure as early as Monday.
“This is one of the most commonsense pieces of legislation dealing with the law that I’ve ever heard since I’ve been here in my six years,” said Sen. Tom McInnis. R-Richmond, who motioned for the measure to be approved in the Rules committee Thursday. “It’s just plumb elementary. A third-grader with his eyes closed and his arms tied behind his back could understand the intent of this piece of legislation.”
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