Yet Again, Activist Judges Ignore Constitution to Push Political Agenda | Eastern North Carolina Now

News Release

    Raleigh, NC     Yet again, activist judges in North Carolina are overstepping their legal authority in an attempt to rewrite the law to further their radical political agendas. This week, a three-judge Superior Court panel in Wake County entered a preliminary injunction that would grant voting rights to an estimated 55,000 convicted felons. This goes against the North Carolina Constitution and state law and is nothing more than a power grab by activist judges and failure by Democrat-controlled state agencies to do their job.

    Section 2 of Article VI of the North Carolina State Constitution explicitly states that no convicted felon "shall be permitted to vote" unless the felon has had his or her rights restored in the "manner prescribed by law." The power to restore voting rights to convicted felons rests squarely with the General Assembly, not with the courts. Additionally, the panel decided that felons do not need to complete their obligations despite the fact the law requires them to pay all of their debts. This blatant judicial overreach reeks of similarities to last year's egregious attack upon the voting rights of North Carolinians by the NCSBE, AG Stein and the North Carolina DOJ.

    After the panel's ruling Monday, Senator Warren Daniel (R-46), who also co-chairs the Senate's committee on election law issues, said he didn't believe the judges had the authority to issue the decision they did and that the issue of when felons should regain the right to vote is simply a policy debate that shouldn't be settled in court.

    "If a judge prefers a different path to regaining those rights, then he or she should run for the General Assembly and propose that path," said Senator Daniel.

    The flagrant disregard of the North Carolina Constitution by the very people who have sworn to protect it is troubling to say the least. North Carolina voters see the common thread among these attacks on our Constitution: they are all coming from Democrats.