Assistant Professor Vanessa Zboreak spoke with NC Policy Watch for an article on a proposed North Carolina budget with provisions limiting the authority of the governor and attorney general in certain situations.
An Elon Law faculty member with expertise in administrative law described certain provisions in a state budget passed by the North Carolina legislature as “a naked partisan grab” in recent coverage by NC Policy Watch.
Assistant Professor Vanessa Zboreak spoke with reporter Lynn Bonner for “NC Senate budget gets preliminary approval, with Democrats’ ideas sidelined.”
In addition to budgetary figures for state spending over the next two years, the proposed budget contains special provisions that prohibit the governor from issuing executive orders during a state of emergency without approval from the Council of State.
The proposed budget also “prevents the attorney general from agreeing to consent agreements or lawsuit settlements to which legislative leaders are a party unless the lawmakers agree.”
Both the current governor and the current state attorney general are Democrats. The budget has passed both Republican-controlled chambers of the North Carolina legislature and is now on Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk.
“The legislature can’t write a law that gives itself executive power or write a law that overly intrudes on the function of the executive branch,” Zboreak said in the article. She added that the provision involving the attorney general “is going to run in to serious problems.”
Zboreak teaches Legal Method & Communication at Elon Law, with scholarly interests in administrative law, remedies, and food law and policy.
An advocate for sustainability, her research explores trends in the administrative notice and comment process, communications between agencies and the public, and the way administrative law impacts food systems. Zboreak earned her law degree from Wake Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Grinnell College.