Stein sues GOP lawmakers over bill stripping him of power to fill statewide judicial vacancies

It's the third such lawsuit challenging a bill GOP lawmakers passed last year transferring appointment authority away from the Democratic governor.

Then-Attorney General Josh Stein attends a Democratic event in Wilson on Nov. 2, 2025. Shortly after being elected governor and taking office, he was stripped of appointment power.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon challenging a pair of bills GOP lawmakers passed last year that strip him of a number of appointment powers.

Under Senate Bill 382, which took effect this year, Stein is limited in how he may fill vacancies on the North Carolina Court of Appeals or state Supreme Court.

While governors were previously able to fill vacancies with someone of the opposite political party as the departing judge or justice, Stein must now appoint someone from the same political party as the departing individual.

That means if any of 12 Republicans on the Court of Appeals or five Republicans on the state Supreme Court leave office, Stein couldn’t replace them with a Democrat. Instead, he’d have to select one of three nominees presented to him by the NCGOP’s executive committee.

While the scenario may sound abstract or unlikely to happen, such a scenario happened in 2019, setting in motion a string of events that gave Democrats short-term benefits. Let’s break down what happened and why it’s still relevant today: