Does it strike anyone else as odd that Gov. Bev Perdue is rescinding the same executive order she issued regarding judicial appointments?
Well, she’s not really rescinding it. She’s exempting herself from it. She apparently thinks that incoming Gov.-elect Pat McCrory and future governors should be bound by the one she issued nearly 18 months ago. But she thinks she should be exempt from it.
You see, Perdue only has a few weeks left as governor, as McCrory plans to be sworn in Jan. 5, 2012. And Perdue wants to make the appointment to the position of justice of the N.C. Supreme Court, since Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson has announced her retirement from the court.
That doesn’t leave enough time for the Judicial Nominating Commission she put in place in 2011 to gather nominations and submit three qualified names to the governor before she leaves office.
So what does Perdue do? Instead of leaving that nomination to McCrory, Perdue decides to merely exempt herself from her own order. But not future governors.
“I urge future governors to continue utilizing the commission to assist them in filling judicial vacancies for all the reasons set forth in Executive Order No. 86,” Perdue writes, in Executive Order No. 137.
And, oh yes, the latter order remains in effect only until the end of her term.
