By Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
Good morning and welcome to Under the Dome. I’m Emmy Martin.
Two-thirds of Americans are worried about a constitutional crisis developing from the recent clashes between Donald Trump’s administration and the courts, an Elon University survey released Thursday found.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they are very or somewhat concerned that the executive branch and the courts may reach a point where neither side will back down. The partisan split is evident within that: 88% of Democrats expressed concern, compared to 61% of independents and 51% of Republicans.
“Americans are clearly questioning whether the rule of law and our constitutional structure are built to withstand the pressures of the current political moment,” Zak Kramer, dean of Elon University School of Law, said in a press release. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how these disputes will turn out, and things are moving fast, so we shouldn’t be surprised that most Americans view these questions through a heavily polarized lens.”
Forty-seven percent of respondents agree with federal judges’ rulings that have blocked or delayed Trump’s actions, while 34% believe these rulings have gone too far.
“Despite declining trust in the Supreme Court over the decades, we are finding that even many of President Trump’s supporters have some pause when it comes to conflicts between the executive and judicial branch,” Jason Husser, the director of the Elon University Poll, said in a press release.
He pointed to the finding that 40% of Republicans thought the executive branch should have the authority to ignore court rulings that it believes are bad for the country, and a majority of Republicans, 52%, thought the judiciary had the right amount of power.
SOME OF THE OTHER FINDINGS
Forty-six percent of poll respondents said the executive branch has too much power. Within that, there’s a partisan division: 79% of Democrats say the president has too much power, and 67% of Republicans say he has the right amount.
Only 10% of those surveyed said the U.S.’s system of checks and balances is very effective. Thirty-four percent said it is somewhat effective, and 32% said it is somewhat or very ineffective.
A majority, at 54%, said the executive branch should not have the authority to override or ignore court rulings. Here’s the partisan split: 78% of Democrats, 53% of independents and 33% of Republicans.
Trump’s approval rating is slipping, the poll found: 41% approve of the job he’s doing and 47% disapprove. In Elon’s February poll, his approval rating was 45% and his disapproval rating was 41%.
YouGov administered the national survey to 1,000 American adults from April 10-17. It has a 3.58 percentage point margin of error.
Advocacy to protect Medicaid ramps up
As congressional Republicans push for a budget deal that includes tax cuts and stricter immigration enforcement, they are also eyeing cuts that could impact Medicaid.
And on Thursday, a coalition led by advocacy group Protect Our Care spoke on the consequences cuts to Medicaid could have.
Medicaid is a federally and state-funded program, covering more than 3 million North Carolinians, including low-income adults, children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Shannon Dingle said Thursday she is the community engagement associate for Little Lobbyists but “most importantly for today, I’m Zoe’s mom.”
“Zoe is 13, loves the color blue, listens to Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, and adored Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo even before ‘Wicked,’” Dingle said.
Zoe also has cerebral palsy and requires full-time care. Medicaid, Dingle said, allows her to live at home in Raleigh. Before being adopted by Dingle and her late husband, Zoe had been hospitalized. Dingle, now a widow, said she struggles to raise Zoe and her five siblings despite having employer-sponsored health insurance.
“Simply put, Medicaid keeps her alive and allows her to be an extraordinary kid at home, in the community and at school,” Dingle said.
Former AARP president Eric Schneidewind said that Medicaid funds 70% of seniors in long-term care and covers more than 60% of patients in nursing homes. It also helps low-income seniors and people with disabilities retain their Medicare coverage by helping pay premiums and other costs, he said.
State Rep. Sarah Crawford, a Democrat from Wake County, discussed a provision in the 2023 Medicaid expansion legislation that would end expansion if federal funding for the expansion population declines. She has filed a bill to remove the provision, but it has not yet received a hearing in the GOP-led General Assembly.
Asked by The News & Observer about conversations at the General Assembly on Medicaid, Crawford pointed to a separate Republican proposal that would create a joint legislative commission to study how to adjust the state’s Medicaid program if federal funding drops.
She said she voted for the study bill because it’s important to “think about our worst-case scenarios in North Carolina.”
Before voting, she said she confirmed with bill sponsors that any resulting plan would only be enacted if federal funding is actually reduced. “I don’t want to put plans together that are like a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CUTS FORCE END TO HEALTH INVESTIGATION AT NC STATE
NC State University Chancellor Randy Woodson announced Wednesday that the health investigation into Poe Hall at the school has ended due to Trump’s federal workforce cuts.
Poe Hall has been closed for almost 18 months after preliminary test results showed the presence of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, on various surfaces throughout the building.
The U.S. banned the production of PCBs in 1979. They are “probable human carcinogens,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) had been conducting an evaluation to determine if workers were exposed to hazardous materials that could cause health risks, illness or injury, or harmful conditions.
But now, that evaluation won’t be completed.
University officials were notified this week that NIOSH’s investigation had ended due to reduction-in-force efforts at the agency, Woodson said in his campus message.
Woodson also said the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services informed the university that “all HHEs across the state have been halted because of these federal cuts.”
Korie Dean has the story.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
The Southeast Regional Climate Center at UNC-Chapel Hill has resumed operations after the Trump administration reversed a halt in funding. The center was shut down for several days before the U.S. Commerce Department agreed to renew the center’s contract for another year, Kyle Ingram reports.
A statewide campaign, called the N.C. S.A.F.E. for Schools program, began this week to provide all 115 school districts with information to share with their families about safe storage of firearms. The program reminds gun owners that it’s up to them to safely secure their weapons to prevent tragedy, T. Keung Hui reports.
Today’s newsletter was by Emmy Martin and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi. Check your inbox Sunday for more #ncpol.
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Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi is a politics reporter for the News & Observer. She reports on health care, including mental health and Medicaid expansion, hurricane recovery efforts and lobbying. Luciana previously worked as a Roy W. Howard Fellow at Searchlight New Mexico, an investigative news organization.
