By Anne Blythe
Raleigh News & Observer Feb. 28, 2017 — North Carolina legislators upset with efforts by the governor and state attorney general to stop the U.S. Supreme Court from reviewing the state’s voter ID law have lodged their protest with the country’s high court.
In a court document filed Monday, legislative leaders sought to be added to a case that could determine whether North Carolina voters have to show one of six forms of identification to cast a ballot.
At issue in the latest legal struggle between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republicans at the helm of the General Assembly is who speaks for the state — the governor or state legislature.
The lawmakers’ filing comes nearly a week after Cooper and Stein took a step to end a review of a lower court ruling. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory had requested the Supreme Court’s review in the waning days of his administration.
Cooper’s chief counsel and Stein sent a letter on Tuesday dismissing private attorneys who had been representing the state in an appeal of the ruling last year by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found key provisions of a 2013 elections law overhaul unconstitutional.
