After N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson filed several lawsuits to block President Donald Trump's executive orders, the state Senate is now trying to block Jackson from filing further legal challenges.
Jackson is a Democrat who served in Congress before he was elected attorney general last year. He's joined with other state attorneys general from his party to sue over Trump's orders to end birthright citizenship and freeze federal grant funding.
would stop the attorney general from joining any legal actions related to a presidential executive order 鈥� from filing lawsuits to amicus briefs.
Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, said the attorney general and other officials elected statewide should have less power.
"I think we've gone over the last several decades of giving our Council of State seats too much authority," Hanig said. "All their authority is given to them by this General Assembly, and we need to control that."
But Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, defended Jackson's actions so far.
"There have been 65-ish executive orders ... the attorney general has challenged three or four and has been successful," she said. "So to me, the courts are functioning. The attorney general's office is functioning. I would just like to see us let that play out the way that has traditionally played out in our court system."
The bill is the second measure to target the attorney general's powers since Jackson was elected. In December, a wide-ranging bill that limited the power of incoming Democrats included a provision to stop the attorney general from legal action that could invalidate laws passed by the legislature.
Democrats questioned whether the bill would have been filed if a Republican attorney general was suing a Democratic president.
"Today might be politically convenient for you to go after a Democratic attorney general," said Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed. "But imagine if this was a different scenario, where you had Kamala Harris as president with executive orders, and you had Dan Bishop as our attorney general. Would you want to tie Dan Bishop's hands?"
But Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson and a sponsor of the bill, defended the power shift.
"It's been approached in a very nonpartisan way," he said. "It's simply to keep our attorney general focused on the things that they should be focused on, which is really protecting North Carolinians."
The bill now heads to the Senate Rules Committee. A similar measure has been filed in the House but hasn't yet advanced to a committee hearing.
Also Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Among other provisions, that bill would require state law enforcement agencies 鈥� including those overseen by Gov. Josh Stein's administration 鈥� and UNC System schools to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.
