From the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law:

RALEIGH, NC. March 15, 2011—Today, lawyers with the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL) received and reviewed a memorandum prepared by State Controller David McCoy in which he claims the Governor’s plan to raid the Employment Security Commission Reserve Fund is constitutional. NCICL attorneys take exception to the Controller’s analysis which they characterize as incomplete and factually inaccurate.

“The Governor must administer the budget as the General Assembly has written it, whether she likes it or not,” said NCICL Senior Staff Attorney Jeanette Doran. “Constitutional mandates do not and should not bend to convenience or expediency.”  In a Memorandum of Law, Doran explains the errors in the Controller’s analysis and the constitutional flaws in the Governor’s plan to use various special funds, including the Employment Security Reserve Fund, to pay General Fund expenditures. Last week, NCICL published two memoranda of law questioning the constitutionality of the Governor’s plan.

You’ll find all of NCICL’s legal memoranda by following the link above.