our poor state! Slate - "America Could Look Like North Carolina by 2020. Yikes."

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/north_carolina_republicans_are_attacking_the_courts_the_environment_and.html

Republicans in the Tar Heel State are attacking the courts, the environment, voting rights, protesters, and immigrants. They’re giving us a glimpse of America under four years of Trump.

By Mark Joseph Stern

What happens when Republicans have enough power to do virtually anything they want? On the federal level, that’s still an open question: We’ll find out if Democrats fail to mount meaningful resistance to President Donald Trump by 2018—or if Republicans stop infighting for long enough to realize how strong they already are. But on the state level, North Carolina provides us a preview. Thanks to gerrymandering that has been ruled to be unconstitutionally racist, Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the state’s General Assembly. (A federal court ordered new districts and special elections this year, but the Supreme Court blocked them.) This week, Republicans rushed to pass a slew of bills that could permanently damage the state’s courts, elections, universities, and the environment. They also provide a glimpse at the havoc congressional Republicans in Washington could wreak with just a few more votes in the House and Senate.

Start with the state judiciary, which has been under attack from North Carolina Republicans since Democrat Roy Cooper won the governorship in November. In March, Republicans voted to strip Cooper of the authority to fill vacancies on district courts and the state Supreme Court, delegating that task to the legislature instead. They also shrunk the state court of appeals from 15 judges to 12 in a shameless attempt to stop Cooper from replacing three Republican judges set to step down during his term. After Cooper vetoed the bill, one of those Republican judges stepped down early in protest of the GOP’s chicanery, allowing Cooper to appoint a Democrat. But Republicans promptly overrode his veto. Then, apparently out of spite, the House passed a bill requiring Cooper to replace any other court of appeals judge who vacates his or her seat early with a member of the same political party. Cooper could therefore be barred from replacing Republican judges with Democratic ones.

Legislative Republicans are still well aware that Cooper could threaten their dominance: As governor, he is empowered to roll back the GOP voter suppression measures. Under state law, Cooper can appoint three Democrats to the five-member state election board—which, in turn, can appoint two Democrats to each three-member county election board. Under Republican control, these boards implemented rules designed to prevent minorities from casting ballots, accomplished primarily through slashing early voting and moving precincts out of majority-black areas. When Cooper took office, he should’ve been able to reverse this disenfranchisement.

To forestall that possibility, Republicans attempted to restructure the boards in December, expanding them and dividing them evenly between Republicans and Democrats to create constant deadlock. A court struck down this overhaul as a flagrant violation of the state Constitution—but Republicans promptly resuscitated it with minor tweaks. Cooper vetoed the measure, but Republicans overrode his veto on Monday. The governor’s office has already filed suit against the new law. While it moves through the courts, he will be barred from taking control of the board and restoring voting rights throughout the state.

snip - more at the link above

[PdxSean]

1. This is the stuff of horror movies.

North Carolina, if truth be told, is having a civil war.