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At the end of last year, Republican lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting newly elected Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson from taking a position on state laws challenged in court that conflict with the views held by the GOP-led legislature.
The move stemmed from Republican frustration over previous Democratic attorneys general — Roy Cooper and Josh Stein — failing to defend the state in a 2017 court challenge over the state’s photo ID law.
Quick rewind: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law, and the GOP appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. That year, Cooper, newly elected as governor, and Stein, newly elected as attorney general, moved to dismiss the state’s appeal.
The appeal fell apart when the nation’s highest court declined to hear the case. Republicans believed Cooper and Stein had sabotaged them.
You can look at the issue in one of two ways, probably depending on your partisan views and which party is in power: The governor and attorney general are independent elected officials who should be free to fight for their positions once in office, or they are executors of laws passed by the General Assembly and shouldn’t fighting their state’s own duly passed legislation.
Now, with Jackson straitjacketed to align with the legislature, some GOP lawmakers are looking for even more control.
Bills introduced in the House and Senate would also bar Jackson from participating in lawsuits that seek to thwart President Trump’s executive orders. Jackson has joined lawsuits led by other Democratic attorneys general to stop Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, for instance.
The News & Observer reported last week that Senate leader Phil Berger appears to support the bills.
The newspaper wrote:
Berger said that North Carolinians have backed Trump and his agenda in three consecutive elections. “I think, at least as far as I’m concerned, and most of the folks that I’ve talked to that voted for President Trump, they had a good feeling of what they were going to get with him,” Berger told reporters. “And I think it’s unfortunate that we have an attorney general, and our previous attorney general who’s now the governor, who felt like it was incumbent upon them to express their personal views in litigating against the federal government.”
He added: “I’d rather have an attorney general that’s concentrating on what’s happening in North Carolina, making sure that folks who are convicted of crimes, that when those things are appealed, that we’ve got good representation in the appellate courts, and actually moving forward with supporting and actually litigating cases on behalf of the people of the state of North Carolina, and the laws that have been passed by the legislature.”
There are obvious signs of hypocrisy, of course. If Republican Dan Bishop had won the attorney general race, none of this would be happening.
But here are a few additional thoughts if the second Jackson measure becomes law:
- It will not mean much nationally. Attorneys general have become leading members of the resistance to whatever political party is in power. Democratic attorneys general often sued the Trump administration during his first term; Republicans did the same under Biden. (Just across the border, South Carolina Republican Alan Wilson was a frequent legal bête noire for Biden.)
The beat will go on. New York, California, and other deep-blue states will continue to sue the Trump administration with or without Jackson.
- It makes Jackson something of a martyr.
He ran for attorney general because Republican lawmakers drew a new congressional map that erased his Democratic-leaning seat in Mecklenburg and Gaston counties. Being gerrymandered out of office was a good fundraising talking point. Being hamstrung by legislation specifically targeting him also makes for a good narrative.
- But most importantly, it takes Jackson out of partisan politics, at least around the hottest-button issues. Attorney general will not be Jackson’s last attempt at office. He may run for governor in 2032. He could challenge Republican Ted Budd for U.S. Senate in 2028.
One of the benefits of being attorney general is that you get a sizable amount of press for doing things voters in both parties agree on: going after robocalls, prosecuting drug traffickers, suing hospital systems over not providing care, and so forth.
North Carolina is a red-leaning state, having voted Republican in every presidential and U.S. Senate race since 2008.
To defeat Budd, Jackson’s best bet is to be seen as a centrist Democrat — and being locked out of the Trump resistance and forced to focus on popular crime-fighting measures is no big setback.
