North Carolina’s Republican lieutenant governor said Thursday that he plans to sue Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper for allegedly violating the state’s Emergency Management Act with the executive orders he issued during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to Cooper on Thursday, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said the governor has “repeatedly ignored the law, enacting mandates that selectively target the businesses and citizens of North Carolina without concurrence from a majority of the Council of State.”
Cooper has issued several executive orders since the onset of the pandemic. The most recent declaration was issued Wednesday, when Cooper ordered people to wear masks in public and extended the second phase of the state’s reopening until July 17.
In his letter, Forest alleged that Cooper’s declarations made it “impossible” for him and other members of the Council of State — a group of 10 elected officials including the state’s attorney general and secretary of state — to “fulfill our oaths to uphold the laws of North Carolina.”
“The Emergency Management Act requires that you seek and receive concurrence from the Council of State prior to exercising the most expansive statewide emergency powers of the Governor,” Forest wrote in the letter.
Before issuing a March 17 executive order that limited restaurants to takeout and delivery, Forest wrote, Cooper turned to the council for support. But despite a majority of the members saying “further discussion was needed,” Cooper “proceeded to issue the order.”
Since then, Forest wrote in the letter, Cooper hasn’t sought agreement from the council before issuing subsequent executive orders.
“The North Carolina Constitution does not create a unitary executive, but rather disburses executive power throughout the Council of State,” Forest wrote.
When asked if other members of the council plan to sign onto the complaint, a spokesman for Forest, Jamey Falkenbury, told CNN in an email that the lieutenant governor “felt that it was best that only he file suit.”
In his letter, Forest asked Cooper to waive a requirement that would force him to be represented by the state’s attorney general to avoid a conflict of interest.
“There’s no room for politics during a pandemic,” Dory MacMillan, the governor’s press secretary, told CNN in an email. “The Governor will continue to be guided by science and the law as he works every day with public health experts to keep North Carolinians safe.”
Forest is running against Cooper in the November gubernatorial election.
This story has been updated with comments from the governor’s press secretary and from a spokesman for the lieutenant governor.
