A superior court judge could rule by the end of this week, whether North Carolina will need to put its lottery operation on hold.
Judge Henry Hight listened to arguments this morning from the state and from the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law. The institute is challenging the process state lawmakers used to approve a new lottery.
The institute is pushing for an injunction to shut down lottery operations until the legal challenges are resolved. “I think it complicates everything if the ultimate decision is that the lottery act is unconstitutional,” said Robrt Orr, the institute’s director and a former N.C. Supreme Court justice.
“What we’re talking about is temporarily putting the operation on hold until the final resolution of the question as to whether the act is constitutional or not,” Orr said to reporters after this morning’s hearing. “Otherwise, you’re going to potentially have the state spending all this money and entering into these contracts, and then the act’s unconstitutional as we contend, and somebody’s got a lot of headaches.”
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate should have considered the lottery bill on three separate days, Orr argued. That’s because the lottery raises revenue for the state. The state’s Constitution requires lawmakers to address so-called “revenue bills” on three different days.
“This really is a question about the Constitution,” Orr said. “It’s not about whether North Carolina should or should not have a lottery. You simply cannot let political expediency trump the state Constitution. And that’s essentially what’s happened here.”
The state rejects Orr’s arguments about the merits of the case and the need for an injunction. Special Deputy Attorney General Norma Harrell is asking Hight to reject the request for a preliminary injunction and to dismiss Orr’s legal challenge. One key factor is the potential harm to the state, Harrell said.
“The lottery — in full operation — can be expected to collect around $3.3 million a day, of which $1.5 million would be set aside purely for education purposes, for the schoolchildren,” Harrell said. “Each day that the operation is delayed would be $1.5 million.”
Hight asked lawyers on both sides of the argument to prepare orders for his consideration by noon tomorrow. He says he hopes to issue a ruling by the end of the week.
