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View Full Version : N.C. Judge invalidates the whole of N.C.'s legislative branch.....




phill4paul
02-22-2019, 09:15 PM
The epitome of "legislating from the bench." This Wake county judge declared the lawfully voted on Amendments to cap income tax and require voter I.D. by deeming that the legislative branch is invalid, and therefore the amendments put forward on the 2018 ballot because of it are therefore invalid, due to gerrymandering.


RALEIGH
A judge has just thrown out two amendments to the North Carolina Constitution that voters approved in November.

One of the amendments was to implement a voter ID requirement, and the other was a cap on the state income tax rate.

The North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members don’t truly represent the people of the state and thus should never have proposed constitutional amendments in the first place, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in his ruling that was issued late Friday afternoon.

“An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution,” he wrote.

When the legislature wrote the amendments and voted to place them on the 2018 ballot, many of the members who voted to do so had been elected under district lines that were ruled unconstitutional because they had been drawn to dilute the political power of African-American voters.

“We are delighted that the acts of the previous majority, which came to power through the use of racially discriminatory maps, have been checked,” N.C. NAACP president Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman said in a press release after the ruling was issued. “The prior General Assembly’s attempt to use its ill-gotten power to enshrine a racist photo voter ID requirement in the state constitution was particularly egregious, and we applaud the court for invalidating these attempts at unconstitutional overreach.”


The amendments were backed by Republican lawmakers, and on Friday N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes said in a written statement to The News & Observer that he thinks the ruling should be overturned.

“These amendments were placed on the ballot and passed by an overwhelming majority of North Carolinians,” Hayes said. “This unprecedented and absurd ruling by a liberal judge is the very definition of judicial activism.”

The voter ID amendment passed with 55.5 percent of the vote while the amendment to cap the state income tax received 57 percent of the vote.

N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes...fuck you. Grow a spine or suffer the consequence.

In N.C. it takes a 2/3rd majority to impeach a judge. Republicans barely hold this majority. Either impeach or get off the fucking pot.

Swordsmyth
02-22-2019, 09:23 PM
The epitome of "legislating from the bench." This Wake county judge declared the lawfully voted on Amendments to cap income tax and require voter I.D. by deeming that the legislative branch is invalid, and therefore the amendments put forward on the 2018 ballot because of it are therefore invalid, due to gerrymandering.



N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes...$#@! you. Grow a spine or suffer the consequence.

In N.C. it takes a 2/3rd majority to impeach a judge. Republicans barely hold this majority. Either impeach or get off the $#@!ing pot.
Definitely cause for impeachment.

nobody's_hero
02-23-2019, 07:26 AM
The epitome of "legislating from the bench." This Wake county judge declared the lawfully voted on Amendments to cap income tax and require voter I.D. by deeming that the legislative branch is invalid, and therefore the amendments put forward on the 2018 ballot because of it are therefore invalid, due to gerrymandering.



N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes...$#@! you. Grow a spine or suffer the consequence.

In N.C. it takes a 2/3rd majority to impeach a judge. Republicans barely hold this majority. Either impeach or get off the $#@!ing pot.

But they can't impeach if they're invalid.

'It was at that moment, the judge discovered his godlike powers.' He found a loophole. It's like when you Google the word "Google", the world implodes, so I've heard. I've never tried it, personally, sounds dangerous.

Schifference
02-23-2019, 08:20 AM
But they can't impeach if they're invalid.

'It was at that moment, the judge discovered his godlike powers.' He found a loophole. It's like when you Google the word "Google", the world implodes, so I've heard. I've never tried it, personally, sounds dangerous.

I just Googled the word Google with no ill effects.

About 562,000,000 results (0.57 seconds)
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Superfluous Man
02-23-2019, 08:33 AM
So the will of the people that was expressed by 55 and 57 percent of them supporting amendments in a ballot initiative doesn't really count as the will of the people, because the option to cast those votes in the first place was given to them by a gerrymandered legislature that was incapable of representing the will of the people?

Even if the legislature's legitimacy were invalidated, the statewide vote would have to render any doubt about that moot.

And I'm sure the judge wouldn't go so far as to invalidate absolutely everything that gerrymandered legislature did, which his reasoning would require if consistently followed.

devil21
02-23-2019, 11:47 AM
The article doesn't mention that various district maps in NC, state and federal, have been thrown out by judiciaries at both state and federal level over the last couple years. The maps really have become ridiculous. My state house district is drawn into a D+30 while others drawn into safe Republican majorities. Agree or disagree with the judge's ruling (I generally disagree as long as the state-wide vote totals still passed the amendments), the justification isn't just out-of-thin-air. The legislative maps are a mess.

left skewed article about the map issues and history. it's factually accurate, however.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/north-carolina-gerrymandering-lawsuit-anita-earls.html

Swordsmyth
02-23-2019, 06:05 PM
But they can't impeach if they're invalid.


You don't know for sure until you try.

I want to see what happens.

angelatc
02-23-2019, 07:20 PM
The epitome of "legislating from the bench." This Wake county judge declared the lawfully voted on Amendments to cap income tax and require voter I.D. by deeming that the legislative branch is invalid, and therefore the amendments put forward on the 2018 ballot because of it are therefore invalid, due to gerrymandering.



N.C. GOP Chairman Robin Hayes...fuck you. Grow a spine or suffer the consequence.

In N.C. it takes a 2/3rd majority to impeach a judge. Republicans barely hold this majority. Either impeach or get off the fucking pot.

I am confused - did SCOTUS rule that the districts were gerrymandered? I thought they blocked any redistricting until after the election.

Swordsmyth
03-02-2019, 08:46 PM
Republican legislative leaders have appealed a court ruling striking down new North Carolina constitutional amendments mandating photo identification to vote and lower caps on income tax rates.The notice filed on Monday with the Court of Appeals challenges Friday’s decision by a Wake County judge voiding legislative directives to put the amendments on the ballot and voter approval of them in November.

More at: https://www.apnews.com/1a7e046ca5d5430386d9b776a740ee45