Legislative Watch: Legislative Republicans Ask Chief Justice to Stop 2017 Elections
Speaking of the 2017 elections, the Republican legislative leadership on Friday made another last-minute request to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for an “emergency” hold on the lower court order for new legislative districts and elections in 2017.
As of Saturday morning, a spokesperson for McCrory’s office said they were not involved in the request, although the filing was made by an attorney who had previously represented that administration as well. McCrory as governor was a part of the original appeal from the order for new elections.
The “emergency” basis for this request seemed to rest on the Republican legislative leadership’s desire not to spend time during the 2017 session starting January 11 dealing with the redistricting order. One wonders whether Chief Justice Roberts will find this a compelling reason to pull the live grenade of this controversy into his own pocket prematurely.
New Gov. Cooper can act to drop the official State of North Carolina imprimatur from the appeal. What effect that would have on future progress of the litigation is uncertain. As of CIB press time over the weekend, there was no indication regarding whether the Chief Justice would act upon the request for a hold.
