New NC laws on guns, immigration, donor privacy now in place despite Stein's vetoes

The North Carolina legislature on Tuesday successfully passed multiple veto override votes, turning bills rejected by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein into law.

Stein has vetoed 14 bills during his first seven months in office. Overrides require the support of three-fifths of both chambers, called a supermajority. Republicans have a supermajority in the state Senate but are one vote shy in the House, which means that any successful override vote must have at least one Democrat on board.

On Tuesday, Republicans found enough Democratic support to pass eight of the 14 vetoed bills into law — including stricter immigration crackdowns, looser gun rules, major changes to state energy policy and a formal definition of gender to exclude transgender people.

But the other bills that didn't become law Tuesday — including several anti-DEI efforts and an attempt repeal of North Carolina's concealed carry laws — aren't necessarily dead now. There's no immediate deadline for the legislature to take override votes, so those efforts could still come later in the year if Republicans are able to get Democratic support for those outstanding issues, perhaps by trading for certain items in the state budget, which also has yet to become law.

The first new law to pass Tuesday, and the one with the most bipartisan support, was Senate Bill 266, a large re-write of state energy policy. It will exempt Duke Energy from needing to meet the climate change goals it agreed to just four years ago, but which it now says it can't accomplish.

It will also allow Duke Energy to charge customers for power plants that don't yet exist, and it will also change the formula used to determine power bills. Stein said that the new formula will lower what businesses have to pay for energy and pass the costs on to families, by raising residential energy rates.

The bill was heavily supported by Duke Energy as well as the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups. "We appreciate bipartisan efforts to keep costs as low as possible for customers and enable the always-on energy resources like carbon-free nuclear power our communities need," a Duke Energy spokesman told WRAL Tuesday.

A recent study found the changes in the new law will grow North Carolinian' energy bills by as much as $23 billion over the next 25 years, WRAL reported Monday.

"Today the General Assembly just made your utility bills more expensive and cost the state thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs by overriding my veto," Stein wrote on social media Tuesday.

He and other have previously said the end of the climate goals will kill jobs in the clean energy industry, since the state's largest utility will no longer need to focus on clean energy.

NC lawmakers debate: Will proposed new energy policies raise people's bills, or lower them?

A new bill intended to slow down or even stop any new government regulations also became law. House Bill 402, also called the REINS Act, mandates that many new regulations — which historically have come out of the executive branch — will now no longer be allowed to go into place unless the legislature also votes to approve them. It's aimed primarily at stopping environmental regulations but could apply to a wide range of future attempts at new rules and regulations.

Another new law is House Bill 416, which prohibits public agencies from collecting, disclosing or releasing personal information about members, volunteers, and financial and nonfinancial donors to certain nonprofit organizations.

Supporters say it protects people's privacy and stops cancel-culture efforts to target people for their charitable donations. Critics say it'll allow people and businesses to funnel money to politicians in secret, with a new loophole that allows private donations to politicians' campaign legal funds.

The new law has the chance to hide corruption and supercharge bribery, said Sen. Joyce Waddell, D-Mecklenburg. "State contractors could anonymously fund the very lawmakers who award their contracts," she said.

The bill passed with support from every Republican and a handful of Democrats.

Other veto battles on display Tuesday included:

Immigration enforcement

Republicans passed two immigration bills into law with help from Rep. Carla Cunningham, D-Mecklenburg. In a lengthy speech while debating over one of the bills, Cunningham criticized U.S. immigration policy — saying it's time to turn off "the conveyor belt" of immigration into the nation — and that "all cultures are not equal."

“Do you think I can go to another country and set up my own rules to live by … and then tell that country that you must speak my language?" she asked. "That’s not going to happen. Nor should it."

Cunningham was interrupted twice during her speech. A member of the public yelled at Cunningham from the gallery, prompting a reprimand from House Speaker Destin Hall. Later, after Cunningham accused her critics of trying to silence her, Democratic state Rep. Deb Butler of New Hanover County asked Hall whether Cunningham had broken the chamber's rules prohibiting personal attacks. Hall said Cunningham hadn't, and allowed her to continue speaking.

"It was my ancestors who came over as slaves, built this country with a strain on their backs," Cunningham said. "So today, if you ask me to line up behind another group of people to raise awareness about their plight, I unapologetically say no."

House Bill 318 made adjustments to a previously passed law requiring sheriffs to work with ICE. Republicans said there were loopholes in that bill, passed last year, that needed to be fixed. The legislation was introduced after some Republicans criticized Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden for not always working with ICE in every circumstance.

Stein said he believes that "anyone who commits a serious crime in North Carolina must be prosecuted and held accountable regardless of their immigration status."

But Stein said the bill itself is unconstitutional — and puts local sheriffs and taxpayers on the hook to pay for any lawsuits — because it requires sheriffs to keep immigrants in jail even after they should otherwise be released, a practice Stein said federal courts have already found violates the 4th Amendment.

Senate Bill 153 would require city, county and state government officials — not just law enforcement — to cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The bill would help ICE expand its deportation efforts beyond people with criminal convictions by gaining easy access to a number of government agencies and buildings including public schools, social service offices and public universities. The measure would also order anyone in charge of taking applications for government benefits — for food, housing, education or other aid — with checking the immigration status of everyone who applies.

Supporters say the bill builds on Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to ramp up deportations of non-criminal immigrants.

"Last November, North Carolinians told us that they wanted us to take action about the border crisis and about illegal immigration," Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, said Tuesday. "And last session we passed House Bill 10, which required sheriffs to cooperate with ICE. But we need to take that step farther."

Supporters say SB 153 will ensure no immigrants are getting benefits they shouldn’t. Critics say it’ll delay help for eligible people who need it and scare immigrant parents from applying for benefits that their U.S.-citizen children qualify for.

"This bill is not about safety," said Sen. Natalie Murdock, D-Durham. "It's about intimidation. It's about fear-mongering, and it's about targeting vulnerable people who come to North Carolina seeking a better life."

Looser firearms laws

Stein vetoed two gun bills, one to repeal North Carolina's concealed carry rules and another to let teachers or volunteers carry guns on private school campuses.

Republicans had the votes to pass the private school gun bill into law Tuesday, but not the concealed carry repeal.

Senate Bill 50 would repeal the training rules and background checks currently required to get a concealed carry permit. It would also lower the age for carrying a concealed pistol from 21 to 18. Critics say making it easier for untrained, unvetted teens to carry handguns in public will only make society more dangerous; they point to a rise in firearms deaths in other conservative-led states that have already taken the same action. Supporters say concealed carry rules are too onerous on people who want to bring guns with them in public.

Greensboro Democratic Sen. Michael Garrett claimed Tuesday that behind closed doors, some of his Republican colleagues admit it's a bad idea but that they feel political pressure to vote for the bill, which is being heavily pushed by the gun industry and gun rights groups.

"Our children's future hang in the balance of our decision today," Garrett said. "They will inherit the North Carolina we are creating in this chamber. When they ask us why we chose to make their world more dangerous, instead of safer, what would we tell them? That we were afraid of political consequences? That we valued party loyalty over their lives?"

The idea had been opposed by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger as recently as 2023. But Berger now faces a primary election challenge fueled by critics who say he's not conservative enough, and he is now a lead sponsor of the bill. “Law-abiding North Carolinians shouldn't have to jump through hoops to effectively exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Berger said last month.

The vote to override Stein's veto on Tuesday in the Senate came down purely along party lines, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed. However, the override is unlikely to pass in the House, which didn't attempt an override vote Tuesday. When it originally came up for a vote earlier this year, multiple House Republicans either voted against it or skipped the vote altogether.

House Bill 193 became law Tuesday. It allows private school leaders to authorize teachers, parents or other volunteers to carry guns on campus during school hours, to act as security guards. Private schools are already allowed to hire professional security guards, but many either can't afford it or would rather spend their money on other issues.

Supporters cited recent school shootings, including some at private schools, as motivating their push for this bill. But Stein said it will create more safety risks, not fewer. “We cannot substitute the protection offered by well-trained law enforcement officers by asking teachers and school volunteers to step in and respond to crises while armed,” Stein said when rejecting the bill this month.

The override vote passed the House after one Democrat, Edgecomb County Rep. Shelly Willingham, joined with Republicans in supporting the bill over Stein's objections. He didn't explain his support for the bill. The veto override vote initially appeared to fail in the state Senate but later passed following a lengthy debate about the chamber's parliamentary rules.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Legislative Republicans have cited President Donald Trump's efforts to attack diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and say North Carolina similarly needs to eliminate DEI programs. Stein said they’re measures designed to “distract us by stoking culture wars that further divide us.”

Republicans have been unable to win any Democratic support for the DEI bans, and none of them became law Tuesday. Two of the legislature's three anti-DEI bills passed the Senate, though, since Republicans don't need Democratic support in that chamber.

Senate Bill 227 and Senate Bill 558 target any course curriculum, readings, homework or classroom discussion on DEI-related topics in public K-12 schools, community colleges and universities, as well as banning their employees from being given any DEI-related training courses.

Sen. Terrence Everitt, D-Wake, said Tuesday that Republicans have a worldview he simply doesn't understand, appearing to think 18-year-olds are mature enough to carry concealed handguns in public but that they're too emotionally delicate to learn about history. As a white man, he said, he welcomes schools and colleges being allowed to accurately teach history even if white men aren't always the heroes.

"How little we think of our young people, that we believe that they'll be indoctrinated or somehow broken by simple exposure to 'divisive ideas,'" Everrit said. "We honestly think that they are that weak. I don't need this bill. My kids don't need this bill. I want my kids in a diverse learning environment, especially when they go to college. I want them to hear voices that are different from their own, grapple with history from every angle, and to engage movement with challenging and divisive ideas, because that's what prepares them. It makes them more resilient."

Sen. Michael Lee, R-Wilmington — who's half-Taiwanese and the only Republican state Senator who's not fully white — defended the DEI bans. He said the bills aren't intended to ban students from being taught an accurate version of history, but instead aim to ban teachers and professors from pushing concepts like white guilt, or to tell students that certain groups are inherently bad.

"It doesn't ban teaching history or discussing past injustices," Lee said. "It doesn't restrict for speech. It doesn't prohibit individual research. Study materials can still be available. It doesn't eliminate all forms of professional development, just those that compel or advocate for divisive concepts and discriminatory practices."

Everitt noted that the higher ed DEI ban has one carveout: While universities are banned from teaching or endorsing certain concepts, they're also banned from investigating anyone for microaggressions or what anyone claims was an attempt at satire. That's clearly intended to protect hateful actions, he said, and it gives away the motivation behind the entire bill. "It is a get-out-of-jail card for bigotry, for sexual harassment, for being cruel to others," he said.

House Bill 171 says no state workers or agency leaders can make any decisions on hiring based on "race, sex, color, ethnicity, nationality, country of origin, or sexual orientation." It would also ban human resources training in state government that focus too heavily on diversity. People who are found in violation would be fired and subject to fines. The bill would also let people who think they didn't get a job or a promotion in state government to sue, if they thought DEI played a role.

The bill does almost nothing to define what it considers banned DEI topics to be, leaving it open to interpretation — and the possibility for selective or politically motivated complaints. Stein said that was one of his main concerns with the bill, saying it "is riddled with vague definitions yet imposes extreme penalties for unknowable violations."

Gender issues

House Bill 805 would officially define gender to exclude transgender people, ban state dollars from being used on transgender surgeries and make it easier for people who come to regret a sex-change surgery to sue their former doctors. It would also let parents block public schools from allowing their children to check out certain books from the library, and it would allow children to skip any classes or homework that the parents believe "would impose a substantial burden on the student's religious beliefs."

The bill became law after one Democrat, Charlotte Rep. Nasif Majeed, joined with Republicans in supporting the bill over Stein's objections. He didn't explain his support for the bill.

Stein's veto message focused mostly on the anti-transgender parts of the bill. "My faith teaches me that we are all children of God, no matter our differences, and it is wrong to target vulnerable people, as this bill does," Stein wrote when rejecting the bill. "I stand ready to work with the legislature when it gets serious about protecting people, instead of mean-spirited attempts to further divide us."

The North Carolina Republican Party responded that it's Stein who's not being serious about protecting people, adding that “Stein and his radical allies disrespect women across North Carolina in service of a far left-wing agenda voters time again have made clear they reject."

Republican state Rep. Neal Jackson of Moore County said Tuesday that the bill was “crucial for protecting the safety, the dignity, the mental well being of girls in North Carolina by ensuring their right to privacy in vulnerable spaces, like hotel rooms during school sponsored overnight trips.”

House Democrats also said the legislation was harmful not only to North Carolinians but to relationships between Democrats and Republicans in the chamber. The original version of the bill focused solely on sexual exploitation. Members of both parties worked on the bill together and it initially passed the House with unanimous support. Senate Republicans then added language to the bill and sent it back to the House, where Democrats said they were disappointed by their Republican colleagues’ support of the new version.

“The Senate took it, they warped it, wrapping it in culture war policies, and they sent it back to the House with a smile,” said Democratic state Rep. Laura Budd of Mecklenburg County. “The vote to concur, and now this vote to override the governor's veto is overtly manipulative.”

Other bills

Stein's other vetoes included:

• Senate Bill 254, which would largely cut the state superintendent of public instruction and State Board of Education out of the oversight of the state's charter schools — shifting oversight away from elected officials to a board largely appointed by GOP state lawmakers. It passed into law Tuesday despite Democratic objections that it violates the state constitution.
• House Bill 96, which would ban cities and counties from passing any regulations related to pet stores — legislation that came after activists pressed Raleigh City Council to ban pet shops in downtown, citing some they claimed are associated with puppy mills. The House didn't take up a veto override vote Tuesday, and instead passed a new version without the puppy mill protections, which Stein asked them to do when he vetoed the bill. It remains unclear if Senate Republicans, who wanted the puppy mill protections, will go along with that plan.
• House Bill 549, which gives Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek less oversight from other agencies, and more power to investigate individual people and private businesses or nonprofits. It became law Tuesday. Republican state lawmakers have sought to expand the power of the auditor's office through this and other bills ever since Boliek won election in November, becoming the state's first Republican auditor in years. Everitt, the Wake County Democratic senator, said the changes are "not some benign expansion of power. The current auditor is a member of the same party that holds a supermajority of this legislature. The same majority that has already stripped power from the Governor, that has redrawn its own districts, that has taken over the courts, and now it's creating a shadow executive — a partisan auditor, with unchecked powers over public and private entities alike. It isn't about good government. It's about creating a state where one party governs without checks or balances."