Cooper asks court to protect cabinet from legislative subpoenas
Gov. Roy Cooper has asked a court to effectively kill a legislative subpoena for Veterans and Military Affairs Sec. Larry Hall to appear at a confirmation hearing. This is part of an ongoing batter over whether lawmakers can have a say on the governor's cabinet picks.
Posted — UpdatedHall has been the test case for a new law giving the state Senate the power to confirm or reject the governor's cabinet appointments. Cooper contends the law unconstitutionally trammels on his powers and said the court should issue an order that shields Hall from testifying until a larger dispute involving the confirmation requirement is settled.
As much as the fight is a partisan conflict between a Democratic governor and a Republican-held General Assembly, it is also part of a long line of power struggles between the executive and legislative branches that have been pursued at various points by members of both parties.
"It is absurd that Roy Cooper continues to make the case that his cabinet secretaries – who have taken their oaths of office, go by the title of 'secretary,' collect six-figure paychecks and have hired their own deputies – are somehow not nominated," Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said in a statement. "The legislature would never tell a witness not to appear to testify in court, so we hope the court would not tell a witness not to testify when subpoenaed by the legislature."
A trial on the legality of the confirmation process is scheduled for early March, but lawmakers insist they have the power to hold hearings regardless of Cooper's objections.
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