In the last hours of session Friday morning, state lawmakers voted to give legislative leaders equal standing with the Attorney General to intervene in constitutional challenges to state laws. The provision, hastily attached to a health care transparency bill in House Rules committee late Thursday night, says: “The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, as agents of the State, shall jointly have standing to intervene on behalf of the General Assembly as a party in any judicial proceeding challenging a North Carolina statute or provision of the North Carolina Constitution.”
“These two gentlemen, if they act together, are agents of the state,” said Rep. Skip Stam, R-Wake. “So if the state has a right to intervene, they would have the right to intervene.”
That prompted Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, to ask whether Stam was seeking to take away the authority of the Attorney General, which is a constitutional office.
“No,” Stam replied, saying the Attorney General would retain all his current powers. “Intervention is an additional party.”
Full Article: Lawmakers give leaders legal standing :: WRAL.com.