Good morning! ☀️ Here’s what you need to know about North Carolina politics today from our team and correspondent Stephanie Loder.

DECISION IN LAWSUIT OVER PROVISIONS OF NC’S ABORTION LAW EXPECTED NEXT WEEK

A federal judge is preparing to issue a final ruling on two provisions of North Carolina’s new abortion law that were challenged in court and have been temporarily blocked since last year.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles heard arguments Wednesday from attorneys representing Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which filed the lawsuit against the GOP’s 12-week abortion ban last June; the N.C. Department of Justice; and Republican legislative leaders, who intervened in the case to defend the new law.

Eagles told the attorneys at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing in Greensboro that she wanted to determine if a trial later this summer was necessary.

A bench trial had been scheduled for July 22, but Eagles indicated at the end of the hearing that she expected to issue a ruling in the coming days, and that a trial wouldn’t be needed.

The two provisions at issue have been blocked from taking effect since last September, when Eagles issued a preliminary injunction.

The first provision requires all abortions performed after 12 weeks of gestation to take place in a hospital. The second provision being challenged requires physicians to document the existence of an intrauterine pregnancy, early in gestation, before prescribing a patient abortion pills.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, Planned Parenthood and Dr. Beverly Gray, a Duke OB-GYN, have asked Eagles to permanently block the provisions, arguing that they are unconstitutionally vague and impose unnecessary requirements on women seeking abortions in the second trimester.

Attorneys representing GOP legislative leaders rejected the contention that the language of the intrauterine pregnancy requirement was vague, and said that lawmakers were justified in requiring second trimester abortions, which can be riskier, to be performed in hospitals.

Eagles told attorneys she could make her decision as soon as Monday.

— Avi Bajpai

HOUSE ADVANCES BILL ALLOWING PROPERTY OWNERS TO KICK OUT SQUATTERS

A bill seeking to make it easier for property owners to remove so-called “squatters” with the help of law enforcement advanced in a House committee on Wednesday.

House Bill 984 would require law enforcement to remove unauthorized people from the premises within 48 hours of receiving a complaint from the property owner.

“There are clear instances of people who are trying to take properties and say they’re theirs and they’re not,” Republican Rep. John Bradford, the bill’s sponsor, said. “This bill creates a pathway to be able to make sure that we have an expedited way to remove them.”

Under current civil law procedure, there is no method for a property owner to seek an expedited removal of an unauthorized person on the premises who was never a tenant of the property.

Since these matters must go through the courts and are subject to appeals, Bradford said it could sometimes take months for people to be removed.

Rep. Abe Jones, a Democrat on the committee, questioned where people would be taken after being removed from the premises.

“I don’t have an answer for that because it’s no different than if someone is evicted from their home,” Bradford said.

Bradford said that he is working to incorporate changes suggested by the North Carolina Sheriffs Association into the bill dealing with liability protections for law enforcement involved in the removal. He will also add changes suggested by the left-leaning North Carolina Justice Center, he said.

— Kyle Ingram

BILL WOULD ALLOW STUDENT SUSPENSION APPEALS

A bill introduced Wednesday in the state Senate Education Committee would allow high school students to appeal short-term suspensions and even have them removed from their records.

Christian McGhee gained national attention for his suspension in April from Central Davidson High School in Davidson County. He had questioned the teacher’s use of the word aliens, asking if they were “space aliens, or illegal aliens who need green cards.”

McGhee’s family wasn’t allowed to appeal their son’s three-day suspension.

Republican Sen. Steve Jarvis of Davidson County said Wednesday the bill upholds “due process for students” who feel they were unfairly punished by giving them an appeal.

The bill, which received bipartisan support in the committee on Wednesday, could see a formal committee vote next week.

Get the full story from T. Keung Hui here.

NC DEMS PUSH TO PROTECT PUBLIC RECORDS ACCESS

Democratic lawmakers aiming to amend the state constitution to create a right to access public records on Wednesday unveiled House Bill 1075.

While introducing the bill, Democrats said their Republican counterparts are failing to be transparent.

Last year, the state budget that was written by Republicans exempted state lawmakers from following state public records laws. The budget provision let lawmakers decide what public records they wanted to reveal.

Sen. Graig Meyer, a Chapel Hill Democrat, questioned why legislators “would ever need to destroy or sell records from doing the public’s business,” a possibility that was mentioned in the budget provision.

A constitutional amendment must be backed by three-fifths of the House and Senate before it can be placed on the ballot.

Get the full story from Vivienne Serret here.

ELECTION BOARD DENIES GOP EARLY VOTING LIMITS

The State Board of Elections on Tuesday rejected GOP efforts that would have limited or altered early voting in key counties.

The board denied local plans that would have:

Early voting plans in North Carolina need to be approved with a unanimous vote by a county board of elections. Without a unanimous vote, the decision goes to the state board.

The state board had to consider voting plans in 11 counties this year after they couldn’t unanimously agree.

Get the full story from Kyle Ingram here.

BISHOP COMPARES TRUMP TRIAL TO JUSTICE OF SEGREGATED SOUTH

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop appeared this week on The Pete Kaliner Show on Charlotte radio station WBT, describing the prosecution of former President Donald Trump as “vindictive.”

Bishop, also a candidate for North Carolina attorney general, on Monday told listeners that Trump’s prosecution was “politically motivated.”

The Republican congressman likened Trump’s prosecution and Thursday’s guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records to the justice system faced by Black people in the segregated South.

Bishop said that the prosecutors who charged Trump should themselves be prosecuted because they had abused their power.

Get the full story from Avi Bajpai here.

That’s all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.

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