EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

NC Supreme Court will hear case between Johnson and State Board

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/nc-supreme-court-will-hear-case-johnson-state-board/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:
Superintendent Mark Johnson, left, and State Board of Education Chair Bill Cobey lead the May 2017 meeting of the State Board (Alex Granados/EducationNC)

The North Carolina Supreme Court granted a petition to hear the lawsuit filed by the State Board of Education against State Superintendent Mark Johnson. The Court will address the claims in the year-long legal battle over whether the legislature’s transfer of power to Johnson was constitutional. 

The suit was filed in response to the General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 17 which gave Johnson control and direction over the Department of Public Instruction. Previously, the Board had the final say on many matters and delegated their authority to the superintendent where they deemed appropriate. 

In July, a three-judge panel granted summary judgment in favor of Johnson, saying the Board failed to show the transfer of power to Johnson was unconstitutional. The Board appealed the decision which State Board Chair Bill Cobey called “inexplicable.”

In an interview this fall, Johnson said the Board is hindering change. “The State Board of Education is tying my hands in court in order to protect the status quo,” he said. “Anyone that is defending the status quo, I will make sure that we move them out of the way and we bring positive transformation for this education system.”

The three-judge panel granted and then extended a stay that allowed the Board to remain in control while the case is appealed. The Supreme Court granted a stay in October, permitting the Board to retain its authority until the case is heard. The case bypassed the Court of Appeals when the Supreme Court elected to review it.