Lt. Gov. Dan Forest filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, July 1 against Gov. Roy Cooper in Wake County Superior Court.
According to the lawsuit, under North Carolina state law Cooper does not have the authority to take the actions he has taken – shutting down bars and restaurants and issuing the stay-at-home executive orders – without either the concurrence of the Council of State or the approval of the courts.
The lawsuit begins by saying what it isn’t. The lawsuit states, “It is important to begin with what this action is not. This action does not concern whether defendant’s [Cooper’s] actions in response to the spread of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) were necessary, reasonable, wise, or driven by science, data or facts. This action concerns the manner in which these actions were taken. The manner in which defendant took these actions is in violation of law as set out in this complaint.”
According to the lawsuit, for Cooper to take statewide action such as shutting down bars and restaurants to dining-in, he needed to first have the consensus of the Council of State, which is made up of the 10 officials elected statewide in the North Carolina government.
Cooper asked for a consensus from the Council of State before he made the official announcement of the executive order closing bars and restaurants, but the vote on the Council of State was 6-4 against Cooper going forward.
The lawsuit notes that for the shutdown orders that followed, Cooper didn’t seek or obtain consensus from the Council of State.
According to the lawsuit, it appeared that Cooper, after not obtaining a consensus from the Council of State, was purportedly using the quarantine and isolation authority granted to the state health director. However, there are requirements for notification of those affected by the action as well as a requirement that to extend the period beyond 30 days the state health director has to obtain an order from the Superior Court in the county where the quarantine action is being taken.
The lawsuit states, “Despite the impact on freedom of movement the Shutdown Orders have in all 100 of North Carolina’s counties, upon information and belief, neither the State Health Director, nor the defendant [Cooper] who is purporting to exercise the State Health Director’s authority, has instituted an action in superior court in any county to obtain an extension order.”
It is clear that the lawsuit questions whether Cooper has the authority to act as the state health director.
But according to the lawsuit, either Cooper had to get consensus from the Council of State or Cooper had to get permission to extend his orders from the courts. Since Cooper did not get consensus from the Council of State or the courts, his actions were illegal.
I skimmed over this so maybe I missed it but what is the lawsuit asking the court to do, exactly? How can a court find in favor if there was no favor specified? Can’t go back and open places March through July. Inviolate of law – did the law in question state Governor Cooper could not publish the executive orders in question? The law might say there’s a way to do something but unless the law states there’s no other way it can be done, where’s the violation? Sounds like at worst (depending on perspective) most of us elected to comply with executive orders that (allegedly) had no legal authority; and if that’s the case, then our compliance was every compliant citizen’s responsibility. Just my layperson thoughts…
So ole tricky Coop has overstepped his boundaries by bypassing the council of state in all his legislative edicts.Wouldn’t it be something if judges would tell him to backtrack all the edicts he has issued.I have asked that you vote Coop out in Nov.So let’s pull together vote Coop out and Forest in .Also Vote Trump back in for 4 more years……….
Sounds too much like the Council of State wanted the Gov to do nothing. Was that the majority opinion? How long would it have taken for those six people to decide to do anything? Does each of them in their area of responsibility only do something if Council of State agrees? I hope that everone wears a face mask, thinks twice about their socializing, and agree we must get those numbers down and save lives and preserve our excellent NC health care. How long do you want to wait for the court decision before you agree to emergency health care decisions?
Well, Ann, as you often regurgitate, no one is above the law. Not even Roy. Not even Mindy. And certainly not Nancy.