A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court and ruled that courts cannot order the state to pay $272,300 owed to the Richmond County public school system.
Writing for the court, Judge Richard Dietz explains that the school system failed to secure an injunction that would have blocked spending of money unconstitutionally diverted from the schools to county jail programs.
Because the money already has been spent, any payment to the schools must come from new sources. The courts, Dietz explains, cannot force either the legislative branch to appropriate money for that cause or the executive branch to make payments that have not been authorized by legislation.
In sum, the role of the courts in this constitutional dispute is over. As the Framers of our constitution intended, the judiciary “performed its function to the limit of its constitutional powers” by entering a judgment against the State and in favor of the Richmond County Board of Education. Smith, 289 N.C. at 321, 222 S.E.2d at 424. The State must honor that judgment. But it is now up to the legislative and executive branches, in the discharge of their constitutional duties, to do so. The Separation of Powers Clause prevents the courts from stepping into the shoes of the other branches of government and assuming their constitutional duties. We have pronounced our judgment. If the other branches of government still ignore it, the remedy lies not with the courts, but at the ballot box.
