NC legislature passes laws on masks, protests, and campaign money over the governor’s objections
The North Carolina Legislative Building (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
The Republican-dominated legislature passed three new laws that Gov. Roy Cooper does not want, with the Senate voting Thursday to tear holes in campaign finance rules, allow billboard owners to cut more trees along roadsides, and have more 16- and 17-year-olds to face trial in adult court.
The Senate voted along party lines to override the Democratic governor’s vetoes. The House took its override votes on Wednesday.
The campaign finance law changes rules to allow wealthy donors to anonymously funnel money into candidate campaign accounts. That same law includes new rules on wearing masks in public.
The surprise addition of new campaign finance changes to a bill on masks prompted Democrats in the Senate to walk out of the chamber earlier this month.
The rules for wearing masks to prevent the spread of disease are tighter. Masks worn for health reasons must be medical or surgical grade. The law creates tougher penalties for people convicted of crimes while wearing masks. And, it increases penalties for obstructing traffic during a protest.
Protesters sitting or lying down on roads and highways were a familiar form of protest over the war in Gaza and over George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
The law raises constitutional concerns, “threatens North Carolinians’ right to protest and allows police officers to stop anyone wearing a mask to ask them to remove it,” Reighlah Collins, policy counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina, said in a statement.
“The bill is designed to apply heightened penalties to protestors and increases the sentence for any offense committed while wearing a mask, contributing to our mass incarceration crisis. We will continue to push back against government and police overreach and support North Carolinians’ rights to protest safely,” the statement continued.
It’s a mistake to allow more 16- and 17-year-olds to be tried in adult court, said Samantha Salkin, an ACLU of North Carolina policy analyst.
“Prosecuting children as adults causes significant harm to already vulnerable young people and does nothing to address the underlying issues that lead to youth crime,” Salkin said in a statement.
“Juvenile courts provide greater protections for minors and create more opportunities for rehabilitation compared to adult courts.
“The General Assembly set aside money for programs to reduce recidivism and youth criminal activity when they passed Raise the Age in 2019 — we should be funding those programs, not pulling back on protections for youth.”
The bill to allow more tree cutting along highways to make room for billboards drew strong opposition from environmental advocacy groups.
At the time of Cooper’s veto, acting N.C. Sierra Club director Erin Carey said, “Billboard blight has no place in North Carolina, a state justifiably famous for its scenic beauty. Redbuds and other trees that were threatened by this ill-conceived bill support carbon sequestration, pollinator propagation, and wildlife habitat.”
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