Will Bateman Be Appealed?

Yesterday after the ruling in Bateman et al v. Perdue et al was released, I reached out to the public information officers for Gov. Beverly Perdue (D-NC) and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office for their response. Specifically, I asked if they planned to appeal the ruling and if they had any comment on the ruling. I was fortunate to get responses from both offices.

From Noelle Talley, Public Information Officer, NC Department of Justice:

Attorneys with our office are currently reviewing the judge’s ruling. No decision has been made yet on an appeal.

Meanwhile, Mark Johnson of Gov. Perdue's office had this to say:

Governor Perdue’s executive orders already address this issue – and will in the future – by including the following language:

This order is adopted pursuant to my powers under Article 1 of Chapter 166A of the General Statutes and under Article 36A of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes. It does not trigger the limitations on weapons in G.S. § 14-288.7 or impose any limitation on the consumption, transportation, sale or purchase of alcoholic beverages.

The legislature would have to make any change in the statute.

If one goes by what the Attorney General's Office says, there remains some possibility of an appeal. However, my reading of the response from Gov. Perdue's office seems to indicate that they don't plan any appeal. My feeling is that it won't be appealed.

After the heat that Perdue took over earlier Executive Orders declaring states of emergency, she has started to include the language stated above in her Executive Orders. Unfortunately, until Judge Malcolm Howard found them unconstitutional, any declaration of a state of emergency under Article 36A of Chapter 14 of the NC General Statutes did trigger the firearms prohibitions regardless of what modifying language the governor put in them. While she may have thought she addressed that issue, she did not as there was never a provision to exempt the gun bans on the governor's say-so.