NCGOP says forcing testimony in political lawsuit would chill speech

N.C. Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse said Democrats’ efforts to compel information from him would chill political speech.

Woodhouse hosted a press conference Thursday, April 19, at state party headquarters. He said on April 9 he was served a subpoena forcing him to give a sworn deposition in a civil lawsuit the state Democratic Party filed against legislative leaders. Even though the state GOP is not a party in the lawsuit, the deposition demands Woodhouse appear April 23 before Democratic Party attorneys and share

1. All documents, including but not limited to electronic communications in the form of emails, texts, and tweets, concerning or related to the elimination of judicial primaries and/or 2017 Session Law 214 between or among you and Sen. Philip Berger, Rep. Timothy Moore, Sen. Ralph Hise, Rep. David Lewis, and/or Rep. Justin Burr.

2. All documents and drafts of documents relating to any NCGOP resolution regarding the elimination of judicial primaries in 2018.

Woodhouse said the subpoena is a constitutionally dangerous and unprecedented attempt to pry disclosure of party political plans and strategies. He said he is facing contempt of court charges and possible jail time if he doesn’t comply.

Berger is the Senate president pro tem; Moore the speaker of the House; Hise and Lewis the chairmen of the Senate and House redistricting committees, respectively; and Burr the primary sponsor of the legislation that became Session Law 214.

Republican candidates running for office joined Woodhouse to express apprehension about conversations they had with party officials. Candidates fret they could become ensnared in Democrats’ legal adventurism.

Democratic Party officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit challenges the Republican-led General Assembly’s decision to cancel judicial primaries this year, and to hold a free-for-all fall general election of all judicial candidates.

U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles ruled Jan. 31 in favor of canceling District Court and Superior Court primaries. But she ordered the legislature to reinstate Court of Appeals and Supreme Court primaries. A three-judge panel of the 4thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed Eagles’ order to hold primaries in the four statewide judicial races.

Woodhouse condemned Democrats’ move to force his deposition April 23 because the Republican Party is not named in the suit.  

“It threatens political parties’ ability to operate in the future,” Woodhouse said.

“The idea that the Democratic Party can command me to go and reveal information about our internal strategies, conversations, plans, even plans that we are no longer pursuing, is extremely destructive of the process,” Woodhouse said.

“This is an unprecedented overreach that could have very dangerous consequences to our political system, and our ability to deliver political debate to the people of North Carolina,” he said.

“I think unfortunately it looks like the Democrats are attempting to gain in the courtroom what they cannot gain in the ballot box,” Berger told Carolina Journal after the news conference.

“Their effort to bring the executive director of the party into the courtroom, and ask questions about political strategy, and intentions with reference to things that are purely politics ought to be slapped down by the courts,” Berger said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Woodhouse sidestepped a question of whether GOP  lawyers will seek to quash the deposition demand. He said he might answer only appropriate questions. But he does not think any question would meet that standard in “an unlimited fishing expedition.”

Asked if he is worried about the threat of jail time for not responding to questions, Woodhouse said, “Of course. And of course my wife and kids worry about that type of thing, and they should.”

Catherine Whiteford, a candidate in House District 34 and national committeewoman of the N.C. Federation of Young Republicans, expressed anxiety over the Democrats’ legal maneuver. So did Troy Lawson, chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party who’s a candidate in House District 57.

“I want to be able to discuss things such as strategy with my own party without fear of it being handed over to my opposition. I feel like it creates a very uneven playing field,” Whiteford said.

“I interact with these folks almost on a daily basis,” Lawson said. “As a chairman, and as a candidate, I just think it’s absolutely outrageous that the other side has asked that we hand over documents, communications, and things of that nature that I may be communicating to the party” because it makes his job much more difficult.

“Clearly this is an attack on a sacred constitutional right of free association that will have a long-term negative impact on the ability of candidates and political parties to deliver critical debate on public issues,” constitutional law attorney Tyler Brooks said in a GOP news release. He is a candidate for the House District 11 seat.