Too many lawyers

Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, October 6, 2013.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper will get more help than he wants in defending the state against the voting rights lawsuit.

His own public statements put him in that position.

Cooper, a Democrat, made it no secret that he strongly opposed the election reforms passed by the legislature in July. He circulated an online petition urging Republican Gov. Pat McCrory to veto the bill, which Cooper called “an assault on voting rights.”

The U.S. Justice Department smacked North Carolina with a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Greensboro, contending the new law violates the Voting Rights Act. Ironically, it’s Cooper’s job to defend the state law, even though he essentially agrees it ought to be overturned. McCrory and Republican legislative leaders hired private attorneys to join the state’s defense.

The legislature granted its leaders the authority to intervene in such lawsuits on the last day of its summer session by slipping a one-paragraph provision into a proposal dealing with hospital billing. Hardly anyone noticed it.

This does not displace Cooper. He insisted last week that his office “continues to have the primary responsibility to defend the state” and that it will do so regardless of his personal views.

Cooper should be taken at his word. The voters have repeatedly placed their trust in him, electing him four times. In 2008, he received more votes than anyone on the statewide ballot. Republicans didn’t even put up an opponent last year. He’s done his job with integrity and professionalism and can be expected to do the same in this case.

Yet, he was imprudent in speaking out against the law. While he says his first obligation is to the people and to make it known when he thinks proposed legislation is poor public policy or legally questionable, he went too far in trying to lead a political campaign against this measure. He knew it was possible he would be called on to defend the law, so discretion would have been wiser. He could have advised legislators and the governor of his concerns privately. The possibility that he will run against McCrory for governor in 2016, as many Democrats hope, further gives Republicans cause to wonder how effectively Cooper would work to give McCrory an important legal victory.

So Republicans would rather not trust this case to a Democrat. Although they say the lawsuit has no merit, they’re willing to spend a lot of taxpayers’ money — $360 an hour just for the South Carolina lawyer McCrory hired — to fight it. That indicates they aren’t as sure of their position as they claim.

A big question is what role the outside lawyers will have. The case is Cooper’s unless a judge says otherwise. Would Republicans ask for his removal? They might, but he’s not going to argue the case himself. He has capable trial lawyers on his staff to do that, and none of them spoke out against the law. The Republicans’ attorneys might be limited to acting as co-counsels at best, or maybe only advisers.

The best idea would be to settle the case rather than contest the suit at great expense. The state should agree to ease its new voting restrictions if the Justice Department withdraws the suit. That would be a win for taxpayers and voters.