NC senators give initial approval to blocking attorney general from suing Trump
The North Carolina Senate gave initial approval Wednesday to legislation that would block Attorney General Jeff Jackson from challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders in court.
Republicans in the upper chamber of the General Assembly quickly advanced Senate Bill 58 last week, saying that Jackson, a Democrat who was elected the state’s top law enforcement official in November, should be focused on the state, and shouldn’t be joining lawsuits brought by other Democratic attorneys general that have sought to block Trump’s executive actions.
Democrats slammed the move by Senate Republicans on Wednesday, arguing in speeches on the Senate floor that GOP lawmakers were abandoning the notion of “states’ rights” by taking away the attorney general’s power to challenge the president’s executive orders.
Sen. Terence Everitt, a Wake Forest Democrat, said the concise, half-page bill Republicans were advancing to block the attorney general from participating in any legal action that seeks to invalidate a presidential executive order “reeks of weakness and appeasement.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed of Charlotte, said that while the move to strip this power from Jackson may seem “politically convenient” now, Republicans could regret the change in the future.
Responding to the comment about states’ rights, which was made by Democratic Sen. Graig Meyer of Chapel Hill, Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters after session: “Maybe I can get a recording of that and we’ll play it back to him sometime.”
Berger has previously said Jackson should be “working for the people of North Carolina here, as opposed to going off on some political quest.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have repeatedly questioned if Republicans would favor limiting Jackson’s powers if the outcomes of last year’s presidential and attorney general elections were different.
And Jackson’s office, weighing in on the bill last week, said that “any legislation that undermines the independence of the Attorney General’s Office is bad for our state and its people.”
Since entering office in January, Jackson has joined four lawsuits against the Trump administration’s policies attempting to end birthright citizenship, pausing federal grant funding, giving the so-called DOGE effort led by Elon Musk access to federal payment systems, and cutting grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for indirect medical research payments.
All four of those lawsuits, and many of the other legal actions brought by Democratic attorneys general of other states, have seen initial success, with judges agreeing to temporarily block the administration’s policies from going into effect.
The bill cleared an initial vote Wednesday in a 28-17 vote.
Democrats objected to a second required vote taking place immediately, and Republican Sen. Bill Rabon moved to schedule the final vote needed to send the bill to the House on Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 5:05 PM.
