NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

NORTH CAROLINA SENATE

April 15, 2020

Governor Roy Cooper

20301 Mail Services Center
Raleigh, NC 27699

VIA ELECTRONIC DELIVERY

Dear Governor Cooper,

We write to request urgent clarification of your executive orders. The Raleigh

Police Department publicly announced this afternoon that “protestors are in
violation of the Governor’s Executive Order” and that “protesting is a non-
essential activity.”

Have you in fact prohibited, via executive order, the act of protesting against your
executive orders?

We understand that your executive orders mandate particular social distancing

requirements. Your orders also permit dozens of people to gather in places of
business provided those businesses abide by your social distancing restrictions.

But the police department in North Carolina’s capital city did not point to
improper social distancing as the reason for their decision to arrest people
yesterday. The police department indicated that you, by executive order, have
prohibited protesting itself.

If that is true, and if authorities are arresting people who protest because you
prohibited protesting, that would be a grave overstep in your authority and would
require immediate judicial intervention.

Can you please clarify whether your executive orders have prohibited the First
Amendment right of North Carolinians to peacefully protest against your
executive orders?

Sincerely,

Senator Warren Daniel Senator Danny Britt

Co-Chair Co-Chair
Senate Judiciary Committee Senate Judiciary Committee