North Carolina settled a 1996 lawsuit on behalf of public schools in 2022, ordering the state to spend $800 million on public schools. Now, the suit is headed to the newly Republican-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court.

Twenty-eight years after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of some North Carolina public school districts, a lower court issued an opinion that ordered the state legislature to fund schools statewide. The argument for bringing the lawsuit back into court hinges on the idea that the court did not have the power to issue “a sweeping statewide order” as the lawsuit was filed on behalf of five rural districts. Plus, Republican lawmakers wanting to revisit may find a more receptive court this time around since the 2022 election secured a 5-2 right-leaning majority.

If the decision is overturned, today’s North Carolina students would be the “third generation of children since this lawsuit was filed to pass through our state school system without the benefit of relief,” according to Melanie Dubis, lead attorney for the school districts.

Some see this as a way for the court to revisit Hoke County Board of Education v. North Carolina, which ensured the state would provide children with “an adequate education” in the wake of school segregation ending nationwide.

“Underfunding of public schools in certain districts and states is deeply connected to racial segregation and racial inequities. That is certainly no different in North Carolina,” said Ary Amerikaner, co-founder of Brown’s Promise, a nonprofit group promoting integration.

Rural and poor districts have seen a widening funding gap compared to schools in wealthier tax brackets. In the case of the five districts that originally filed the 1996 lawsuit, they did not have a strong tax base to support their funding. 

Besides the implications that the case will have on public schools, it will also affect how lawmakers and the governor work together to govern the state. 

“This case is about having power over the courts,” said Ann McColl, a lawyer who co-founded a school leadership network in North Carolina. “The balance of power that helps government function properly is … at stake.”

Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) sued leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly’s Republican majority over a law that would restructure state and local elections boards. 

“Over the years, the North Carolina Supreme Court has repeatedly held in bipartisan decisions that the legislature cannot seize executive power like this no matter what political parties control which offices. The efforts of Republican legislators to destroy the checks and balances in our constitution are bad for people and bad for our democracy,” Cooper wrote in a press release about the lawsuit.

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Some are concerned this could have implications beyond North Carolina.

“If overturned, it would be a huge shock to the rule of law,” said Derek Black, a University of South Carolina law professor. “To allow do-overs would mean that litigation would never end and that no judicial decision would ever be binding. I hope and believe that this court understands that.”