Attorney General Jeff Jackson said he joined a legal challenge to the federal funding freeze out of concern for “widespread and immediate damage” to North Carolinians. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
A North Carolina Senate committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill removing Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s ability to challenge federal executive orders.
The bill, Senate Bill 58, would forbid North Carolina’s attorney general from acting to “file an action” or “advance any argument” challenging the validity of an executive order by the President of the United States — adding to a provision that prohibits the attorney general from seeking to invalidate any act of the General Assembly passed shortly after Jackson’s election last year. The proposal for the added restriction passed the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines in a vote Wednesday afternoon.
Republican Sen. Timothy Moffitt, the bill’s lead sponsor, said it represents “a little housekeeping” that is overdue, stating that the powers exercised by members of the Council of State “have always concerned me.” He and other Republicans charged that North Carolina attorneys general have used the power of the office to wage policy battles in the courts, actions Moffitt views as outside the office’s purview.
Sen. Lisa Grafstein, a Democrat representing Wake County, requested that the committee delay consideration of the bill until further into the administration, noting the significant number of ongoing challenges to Donald Trump’s actions in office. She cited the president’s ongoing efforts to cut off research funding by the National Institutes of Health, an effort that has had an especially pronounced effect in the Research Triangle, whose economy depends heavily on the biomedical industries.
“We have a system where the state attorney general’s position really is to defend the state regardless of the context,” Grafstein said. “I did not expect to be sitting here defending states’ rights, but here we are.”
Moffitt pushed back on the idea that a challenge by the attorney general to a presidential executive order would ever be necessary. He characterized the pushback to Trump’s executive orders as “fearmongering” — and “nothing more than just that” — adding that as a longtime business owner, he does not view the withdrawal of NIH funding as a significant issue.
“I just think that anything that would rise to a level of concern, this General Assembly is capable of interceding,” Moffitt said. “I’m not particularly sympathetic to people that are concerned regarding if their funding source is going to dry up.”
SB 58 comes amid controversy that has arisen over a barrage of executive orders from the Trump administration that seeking to slash federal programs, deport undocumented immigrants, and abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion programs around the country.
In the first two months of his tenure, Jackson has joined lawsuits against the federal government over the potential exposure of North Carolinians’ personal information to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an attempted freeze on wide swaths of funding from the National Institutes of Health, and most notably, an order by Trump purporting to end birthright citizenship in the United States. Federal judges granted relief to the states in every challenge.
“Attorney General Jackson has filed four federal lawsuits to protect billions in funding for western North Carolina, our public universities, and rural jobs. In each case, judges across the country have agreed that the federal government’s actions were likely unlawful or unconstitutional,” wrote Ben Conroy, a spokesperson for Jackson, in an emailed statement. “Any legislation that undermines the independence of the Attorney General’s Office is bad for our state and its people.”
Among the members of the public who spoke at the committee hearing was Liz Barber of the ACLU of North Carolina, who said that Jackson is “within his rights” to challenge executive orders he believes threaten the civil rights of North Carolinians, as the state constitution grants the attorney general common law powers.
“North Carolinians back in November, they elected Jeff Jackson to do that job. They elected him to protect their rights, which we have seen him do on several occasions,” Barber said. “This is certainly not a policy weapon when you stand up and say that an executive order violates the United States Constitution’s 14th Amendment to guarantee people born in this country and in North Carolina citizenship. That’s recognizing constitutional law.”
In a testy exchange, Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Democrat who represents Mecklenburg County, asked committee members whether they would be comfortable with the bill were the roles reversed, with Kamala Harris as president with Republican Dan Bishop as attorney general. He noted that Republicans, long the party of states’ rights, have stridently opposed executive action pertaining to healthcare and immigration issues under Democratic presidents.
“Are you sure you’re clearly thinking through what you’re doing here?” Mohammed asked. “Think through what you’re doing here, because it might come back to bite you.”
“I’m pretty sure we know what we’re doing here,” replied Sen. Bobby Hanig, a Republican who is also sponsoring the bill. “I’ll ask you a question: if the roles were reversed, and you were standing here in the same situation, would you be doing the same thing?”
“Absolutely not,” Mohammed said.