Disputed N.C. Education Post Still Unfilled

Superior Court Upholds Right of Legislature to Decide Disputed Race

June Atkinson and Bill Fletcher faced off in court again last week as the two continued their battle to claim North Carolina’s top education post more than four months after their disputed election. Ms. Atkinson won a crucial ruling from a state court late last week, but a decision on the winner is expected to meet further legal hurdles.

Ms. Atkinson, a Democrat, is pinning her hopes on the legislature to declare her the state’s rightful superintendent of public instruction. Lawmakers, at her request, voted last month to take contested elections, including this one, into their own hands.

Mr. Fletcher, a Republican, challenged the new law in court, however, arguing that it was unconstitutional to apply it retroactively to the Nov. 2 election. Wake County Superior Court Judge Henry Hight Jr. ruled last week that...