Dome reports that Republicans were unable to convince four House Democrats to support House Bill 87, Sunshine Amendment, elevating North Carolina’s open-records law to a provision in the state constitution. H.B. 87 would have required a three-fifths majority vote of the General Assembly to water down open-records protections.
A unified, 68-member House GOP caucus could have put the amendment before voters by convincing a mere four Democrats to back it. No dice. So primary sponsor Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, will reintroduce the bill next week as a statute. The three-fifths majority still would be needed to alter the open-records law. But any future session of the General Assembly could weaken that requirement, or repeal it altogether.
