The high court unanimously upheld an Appeals Court ruling from 2024, requiring CMS to make a 5% contribute for campus police into the state retirement plan.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools must pay into the state retirement fund for on-campus school police.
The court filed its ruling on Friday, as the justices upheld a state appeals court ruling from February 2024. The 2024 ruling reversed a lower court’s 2021 decision. The lawsuit was filed by CMS police officers in 2019. The Supreme Court heard the case on April 22.
A North Carolina Court of Appeals panel ruled last February that CMS must make a 5% contribution for a supplemental retirement income plan for on-campus police. Lawyers for the district urged the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.
Chief Justice Paul Newby wrote a separate concurring opinion, joined by four other justices, to clarify how courts should interpret laws. While agreeing with the main decision, Newby focused on explaining the court’s approach to “legislative history,” the background information about how laws were created.
Newby distinguished between two types of legislative history. The first includes “the proceedings leading to the enactment of a statute, including hearings, committee reports, and floor debates.” He said these have “no place in a proper statutory analysis.”
The second type, which he called “statutory history,” involves “changes that the legislature has made to the statutory text over time.” This type can provide insight into what lawmakers intended, but should only be used as “a last resort with limited applicability.”
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