Judges rule against Stein in lawsuit over appointment of Highway Patrol commander
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- Three-judge panel rules against Gov. Josh Stein in lawsuit over Highway Patrol
- Legislature created independent agency, gave commander Freddy Johnson new term
- Court dismissed the lawsuit after finding no constitutional violation
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled against Democratic Gov. Josh Stein in his lawsuit against GOP legislative leaders over the appointment of the commander of the State Highway Patrol.
Stein and his predecessor, Gov. Roy Cooper, sued Republican lawmakers in December after they successfully enacted a sweeping bill that took away power from the incoming governor and other recently elected Democrats.
The lawsuit took aim at one provision in Senate Bill 382 that moves the Highway Patrol out of the Department of Public Safety and establishes it as an independent, Cabinet-level executive branch agency, and keeps the patrol’s current commander, Col. Freddy Johnson, who was initially appointed by Cooper in 2021, in the position for a new five-year term beginning July 1, 2025.
In a brief three-page order Monday, issued hours after a hearing at the Wake County Courthouse in downtown Raleigh, Superior Court Judges Stuart Albright, Justin Davis and Matthew Houston said Stein “has failed to demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the General Assembly’s act is unconstitutional.”
Responding to the ruling, Stein said in a social media post Tuesday morning that he was “disappointed in the superior court’s decision allowing a State Highway Patrol that is outside the chain of command and unaccountable to the voters.”
“The people elected me to protect public safety, and I will continue to do so,” he said.
Stein challenged the law, which was enacted over Cooper’s veto, for preventing him from being able to appoint a new commander or remove Johnson from the position at any point during the five-year term that would begin next month.
In a court filing last month, lawyers for Stein argued that “legislative appointment of a member of the Governor’s Cabinet violates the separation of powers mandated by our state constitution.”
Stein’s attorneys argued that legal precedent illustrated that the governor must “have sufficient control over his executive agencies to ensure that the law can be faithfully executed.”
“Hence, when the legislature impedes the Governor’s appointment, supervisory, and removal authority — as it has done here — it threatens the separation of powers,” Stein’s lawyers argued.
Lawyers for Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, as well as Johnson, who is also a named defendant in the lawsuit, rejected the notion that the law was unconstitutional.
And attorneys for GOP legislative leaders argued that “absent evidence that Governor Stein intends to replace Commander Johnson, the Governor has failed to establish an actual controversy.”
“Governor Stein asks for (a) ruling declaring he has the power to remove Col. Johnson, but the Governor has offered no evidence showing that he intends to actually remove him,” lawyers for Berger and Hall argued. “Therefore, there is no actual case or controversy at stake; the Governor’s lawsuit is seeking merely an advisory opinion.”
Albright, a Democrat, and Davis and Houston, both Republicans, were appointed to hear the case by N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican. Stein had requested the appointment of a three-judge panel in December.
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 5:42 PM.
