Senate Bill 58 would block Attorney General Jeff Jackson from challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders. (Photo of NC Department of Justice by Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)
The North Carolina Senate passed a bill blocking Attorney General Jeff Jackson from challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders Tuesday afternoon amid a flurry of constitutional objections to the administration’s conduct.
The proposal, known as Senate Bill 58, passed the Senate on its third reading by a margin of 29-19 after a previous successful vote on March 5, with all Republicans present voting in favor and all Democrats present voting against. It would prohibit Jackson or any future attorney general from filing any action or advancing any argument that would seek to invalidate a presidential executive order.
Sen. Terence Everitt (D-Granville) proposed an amendment to the bill that would have delayed implementation for four years, until the next opportunity to vote on North Carolina’s attorney general — on the grounds that the voters elected Jeff Jackson with the understanding that he would have the power to challenge executive actions.
“Jeff Jackson clearly won the AG position in North Carolina,” Everitt said. “Now I did not make it to a lot of the Trump rallies, so I don’t know exactly what he was running on, but I did hear Jeff Jackson talk about defending North Carolina and its interests, and that’s what folks voted for — for him to be a check on the federal government.”
Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange) thanked Jackson for challenging Trump’s federal funding freeze and obtaining a preliminary injunction saving “billions of dollars” and “thousands of jobs” in the state. He noted that the order halting that freeze only does so for the states that were plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit — were Jackson unable to challenge the executive order, the state would still be subject to a freeze on federal spending.
“We should not take away the Attorney General’s ability to represent the citizens of the state of North Carolina when he has the opportunity to defend our state for jobs, for funding, for healthcare, for things that our people desperately need,” Meyer said.
Jackson wrote in a March 6 statement on social media that North Carolina “needs an Attorney General who has the authority to challenge unlawful executive orders.”
“We won an injunction against an order that would have cut hundreds of millions in research funding from our public universities and research institutions,” Jackson wrote. “It was a reminder that an important part of this job is being a shield against unlawful federal acts that would undercut our economy and hurt our future. For the good of our state, that shield should remain in place.”
The amendment to delay enactment of the bill failed, but a substitute amendment tasking Jackson with investigating the impersonation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents offered up by Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Caldwell) succeeded, also by a 29-19 vote.
Drawing on an earlier proposal by Senate Democrats to raise the penalty for impersonating members of law enforcement, the change directs Jackson to compile a study on how many such violations have occurred in the last four years and specifically, how many people have been convicted for impersonating ICE agents.
“We agree with the policy direction of looking at criminal impersonating ICE agents,” Daniel said. “It will refocus the Attorney General’s efforts on his core job, leading law enforcement in our state.”
Daniel declined to answer a question on the floor as to whether he would support raising the penalty for impersonation of a law enforcement officer, responding instead that it “depends on the results of the study.”
The bill will now be sent to the state House of Representatives for a vote, setting up the first major test of North Carolina Republicans’ hold on the lower house of the state legislature. Should Governor Josh Stein veto the bill, support from all Republicans in the House may not be enough to pass it over his objection depending on Democratic attendance and votes — the state House GOP has just under the number of members required to meet the three-fifths threshold to overcome a gubernatorial veto.