FEDERAL MAGISTRATE DECLARES NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATORS DO NOT HAVE BLANKET IMMUNITY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     Contact: Jennifer Farmer, 202-487-0967

March 28, 2014                                               Email: jfarmer@advancementproject.org

FEDERAL MAGISTRATE DECLARES NORTH CAROLINA LEGISLATORS DO NOT HAVE BLANKET IMMUNITY TO CONCEAL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO VOTER SUPPRESSION MEASURE, WHICH STANDS TO BLOCK MILLIONS FROM THE POLLS

Magistrate's Order Means Legislators Cannot Throw Rocks, Then Hide their Hands

RALEIGH, NC - Yesterday, U.S. Magistrate J. Elizabeth Peake declared North Carolina lawmakers could not assert blanket legislative privilege to conceal their communications and motives for passing the most discriminatory and regressive voter suppression law in the country. The North Carolina NAACP State Conference, which is represented by lawyers with the national civil-rights group Advancement Project, as well as North Carolina Attorney Irv Joyner and others, issued the following statement in response:

"We are pleased a federal magistrate declared that North Carolina legislators must come clean and turn over communications about the voter suppression law they passed in 2013 which stands to keep millions of seniors, students and people of color from the polls," said the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of the North Carolina NAACP State Conference and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement. "The North Carolina legislature passed the most sweeping and discriminatory voter suppression bill in the country, then sought to hide their hands and skirt the scrutiny of the law. While they spent the last year championing a measure that will make it harder for North Carolinians to cast a ballot, they have employed one desperate tactic after another to thwart accountability. You cannot engage in passing laws that undermine the rights of people and then claim immunity from detailing the reason and rationale of your actions. We have said all along these actions must be examined in the light of the constitution and in the light of full disclosure."

"In ruling in our favor, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Peake concluded, 'while the judicially-created doctrine of 'legislative immunity' provides individual legislators with absolute immunity from liability for their legislative acts, that immunity does not preclude all discovery in the context of this case; instead, claims of legislative immunity or privilege in the discovery context must be evaluated under a flexible approach that considers the need for the information in the context of the particular suit presented, while still protecting legislative sovereignty and minimizing any direct intrusion into the legislative process,' " Advancement Project Senior Attorney Denise Lieberman said, citing information from the court order.

"The decision from Magistrate Peake is a refreshing break from the practice of elected officials attempting to hide their reasons for enacting legislation," said Attorney Irving Joyner. "The decision recognizes that the law cannot and does not allow legislators to enact repressive legislation and hide those acts from the public. In reality, this order from the court means that North Carolina's legislators can run from their oppressive votes, but they cannot hide from the discovery their reasons for passing the law in the first place."

"The Court found that in situations where laws are being challenged under the Voting Rights Act, where Congress deliberately put legislative intent at issue, lawmakers do not have blanket legislative privilege or immunity," Lieberman added. "Rather the Court adopts the approach Advancement Project lawyers suggested -- that there is no blanket legislative privilege and the State must assert individually and specifically any privilege that they contend exists with respect to specific discovery requests." 

To view the order, please click here. For more information, please contact Jennifer Farmer at jfarmer@advancementproject.org or by phone at 202.487.0967.

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