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Speaker 1: Bob. On its face, adding the seats seems to be

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Speaker 1: against the will of North Carolina's voters, but it is

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Speaker 1: allowed by the North Carolina Constitution. So where does that

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Speaker 1: leave any challenges? Well, I don't think it leaves the

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Speaker 1: challenges with any room for success, because the state constitution

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Speaker 1: authorizes the General's Assembly to expand the court up to

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Speaker 1: UH two additional members from the current seven members that

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Speaker 1: we have. So I can't conceive of what kind of

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Speaker 1: legal theory Reverend Barber might come up with that would

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Speaker 1: uh effectively challenge the move if in fact it takes place. Bob,

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Speaker 1: I can just tell us a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: North Carolina Supreme Court. June mentioned that it's going to

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Speaker 1: be four Democrats three Republicans. There was a big election,

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Speaker 1: I know, in November where the Democrat won. How big

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Speaker 1: of a difference will that election make? Is this a

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Speaker 1: court that's divided along partson lines? Well, it's interesting, Uh,

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Speaker 1: most of the opinions issued by the court do not

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Speaker 1: fall along partisan lines, and in many are unanimous. That

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Speaker 1: it's very much in a political court. In that context,

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Speaker 1: the problem and where I really think the focus has

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Speaker 1: to be is on redistricting. Litigation, and probably for the

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Speaker 1: last fifteen years in North Carolina, redistricting plans have been

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Speaker 1: litigated into the state court system and up to the

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Speaker 1: state Supreme Court. And frankly, I think the outside money

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Speaker 1: we've seen in Supreme Court races has been driven almost

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Speaker 1: exclusively by partisan considerations around redistricting plans and whether they

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Speaker 1: comply with the law and the Constitution. And so uh,

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Speaker 1: I don't think the change makes much difference in the

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Speaker 1: greater skill with the Court's responsibilities. But redistricting is the

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Speaker 1: hot button issue, Bob. This would have to be done

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Speaker 1: in an emergency session, or it's being suggested that it

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Speaker 1: would be done in an emergency special session to address

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Speaker 1: Hurricane Matthew. And then put this in because of the

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Speaker 1: situation that's happening with the governorship. So explain that well.

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Speaker 1: The and that brings up a whole interesting set of

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Speaker 1: additional issues. Uh. We had a governor's race uh this

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Speaker 1: year in which the incumbent Republican governor Pat McCrory h

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Speaker 1: ended election night trailing by writer around south out votes

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Speaker 1: um to the Democrat challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper. And

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Speaker 1: there have been a number of what I would call

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Speaker 1: conventional challenges to and a number of counties contesting the

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Speaker 1: validity of of a variety of votes or voters, and

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Speaker 1: so it's not clear where that result is going to

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Speaker 1: finally end up. But of course if the UH, if

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Speaker 1: the Democrat prevails, then Governor McCrory's term would end December

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Speaker 1: thirty one, and so any appointments of publican judges, which

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Speaker 1: would obviously be the intent of the legislature, would would

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Speaker 1: need to come very quickly, and since they're not scheduled

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Speaker 1: for their regular session until January two thousand seventeen, there

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Speaker 1: would have to be in an emergency session, which has

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Speaker 1: been talked about, as you mentioned, in the context of

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Speaker 1: of the hurricane damages the state sustained. So how if

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Speaker 1: this plan were to go through, Are this this UH

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Speaker 1: speculated about plan goes through, how would the new justices

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Speaker 1: be selected? And would the outcome of it all dependent

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Speaker 1: all on on who eventually wins the governor's race. Well,

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Speaker 1: one can anticipate that if Governor mccruory is in office

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Speaker 1: and and the two vacancies are created by the legislature,

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Speaker 1: he would make the appointment pursuing the state constitution, and

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Speaker 1: one would assume he would appoint Republican leaning individuals to

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Speaker 1: those two slats if for some reason it fell over

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Speaker 1: into a term of office held by h Mr Cooper.

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Speaker 1: If if he is success in the campaign is sustained, well,

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Speaker 1: then the then the Republican control legislature wouldn't add two

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Speaker 1: more seats. So because they're not going to give him

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Speaker 1: the appointments to make. And the constitution says whenever there's

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Speaker 1: a vacancy the governor all points sil devate, Bob, this

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Speaker 1: has been a very unusual election. You're to put it mildly.

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Speaker 1: Is this amount of discord unusual in North Carolina politics? Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, probably over the last twenty year thirty years,

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Speaker 1: as North Carolina has truly become a battle ground state

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Speaker 1: at the national level and you've seen the rise of

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Speaker 1: the two party system in the state. Yeah, we've had

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Speaker 1: more and more contentious elections. But uh alluded to this

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Speaker 1: particular um interesting constitutional issue which in the subject of

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Speaker 1: of the call, but I want to at least mention it.

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Speaker 1: There's a provision in the North Carolina Constitution that literally

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Speaker 1: has been there since eighteen thirty five, and it says,

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Speaker 1: in a contested Article three election which the governor's office

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Speaker 1: is UH. If it is a contested election, whatever that means,

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Speaker 1: then the decision will be made by the General Assembly

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Speaker 1: UH in joint session. So and this has actually been

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Speaker 1: been done once before back in two thousand in the

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Speaker 1: Superintendent of Public Instructions race UH, and the then Democrat

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Speaker 1: control legislature UH quote elected the Democrat nominee for Superintendent

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Speaker 1: of Public Instruction, which is an article for a office.

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Speaker 1: So so you know, while we have this issue of

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Speaker 1: will the legislature move forward on court packing, UH, we

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Speaker 1: also have hanging out there this this very unique and

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Speaker 1: rarely used constitutional provision that might throw the governor's race

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Speaker 1: into the general Assembly criticism