Judge Grants Restraining Order Against Republican Veto Over-Ride

Bob Orr

Yesterday afternoon, Wake County Judge Paul Gessner signed a temporary restraining order stopping enactment of the Republican vendetta against the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Gessner agreed that the association had demonstrated it would suffer irreparable harm if the law is enacted, according to Associated Press reporter Gary D. Robertson. Judge Gessner said that NCAE “has shown a likelihood of success on the merits” of its claim that the process violated the state constitution.

"A hearing for a preliminary injunction to block the enactment while the complaint is tried in court will be scheduled in the next 10 days, said Bob Orr, a Raleigh attorney representing the association."

Bob Orr? Former Republican justice on the NC Supreme Court, noted conservative constitutionalist, and until recently an employee of Art Pope's at the Pope-funded N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL). That Bob Orr?

Wow.

Laura Leslie at WRAL has put together an informative piece interviewing a variety of legal experts debating the merits of Bob Orr's case for the NCAE. Most interesting are the opinions of Orr's former colleagues at the NCICL, which prompts all sorts of questions about why Mr. Orr left the Art Pope group that is now strongly disagreeing with his new clients.

Greensboro News&Record reporter Mark Binker says that Orr was asked during a conference call "about taking up a case closely associated with Democrats when he has run in conservative circles for so long. 'The state constitution does not mention Democrat or Republican. It doesn't mention liberal or conservative. It is what it is and says what it says,' Orr said."

We believe that having Robert Orr as lead counsel in their face-off with Thom Tillis and the Republicans in the NC House is the NCAE's equivalent of playing political hardball right back at the politicians who decided last year that they would play political hardball with the state's teachers.