New judge named in Leandro case
The chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court has assigned a new judge in a long-running education adequacy lawsuit.
Chief Justice Paul Newby, in a Dec. 29 order, assigned Cumberland County Superior Court Judge James F. Ammons Jr.
He takes over from Michael Robinson, a Superior Court judge for complex business cases, who requested to be removed from the case in November. Robinson cited a heavy workload in the Business Court in his request.
“Given the procedural history of this litigation, now in its 27th year, it is likely that the continuing oversight by the assigned Superior Court Judge will require extensive periodic hearings for the foreseeable future,” Robinson wrote in a Nov. 30 letter to Newby.
“Given my workload and the demands of my docket as a Business Court Judge, it will be difficult to maintain oversight and jurisdiction over this case without the reassignment of some of my cases to my Business Court colleagues, each of whom already has a full docket and heavy workload,” Robinson added.
It’s the second time in nine months Newby has appointed a new trial court judge in the case. Both appointments took place shortly after a higher court remanded an appeal in the case back to the trial court judge. In both instances, the trial court judges were asked to determine how much money the state budget had set aside to resolve the lawsuit and how much remained unappropriated. That's what Ammons is expected to ultimately decide later this winter.
The case, Hoke County Board of Education, et. al v. State of North Carolina, is a nearly three-decade-old lawsuit over education adequacy. It’s known as the Leandro case for an original plaintiff.
A comprehensive remedial plan agreed to in court — but not fully implemented — calls for numerous regulatory changes and increases in funding over the next six years.
The plan for last year and this year, which have been ordered by the state Supreme Court, calls for higher teacher pay, a study on what pay should be, more support programs for beginning teachers, more teachers who serve in new leadership roles to assist other teachers, expanded prospective teacher scholarships, and increased funding for teachers’ required continuing education.
In November, the state Supreme Court ordered state executives to cut checks to fund the plan for last year and this year. That was after the most recent state budgets, negotiated by Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, didn’t fully fund the plan for those two years.
Cooper supports the plan but state Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and state House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, have intervened in the case in opposition to the plan. They argue they didn’t participate in the plan and that the General Assembly, not the courts, should decide how to spend the state's money. The state Supreme Court, before its 4-3 Democratic majority flipped to a 5-2 Republican majority following the November elections, disagreed.
The Democratic majority argued the state's Constitution is as good as a General Assembly appropriation bill. They referenced the 1997 state Supreme Court determination that the state Constitution promises all North Carolina children to access to a "sound basic education."
Newby, a Republican, signed onto a dissenting opinion in the November case. That opinion, written by Berger's son, also a justice, sided with the lawmakers.
Ammons is registered as an unaffiliated voter.
