Chief Justice Martin to speak to Legislature
Published February 24, 2015
by Colin Campbell, News and Observer, February 23, 2015.
Legislators plan to invite N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin to speak to a joint session on March 4 - the first such speech in years.
Sen. Tom Apodaca, a leading Republican from Hendersonville, filed a resolution Monday to schedule the joint session for 4 p.m. March 4. It would be similar to the governor's State of the State speech, with both chambers crowding into the House chamber to hear the chief justice.
While the legislature hears from the governor every other year, speeches from the Supreme Court are less common. Gerry Cohen, a longtime legislative staffer who's now a lobbyist, tweeted that the last speech was in 2001 when I. Beverly Lake led the court.
Lake's speech was billed as the "State of the Judiciary." He urged the legislature not to cut funding from the court system.
While the topic of Martin's speech hasn't been announced, Dome expects it could have a similar theme: Martin has been lobbying heavily this year for more court system funding.
Apodaca's resolution must get a formal vote from both the House and Senate before the invite is official.
February 24, 2015 at 8:43 am
Frank Burns says:
If the courts need more funding, it should come exclusively from the lawyers as they are the ones that have created the additional costs with all of their legal machinations. Don't burden the NC taxpayers with this cost.
