This is a spot of good news coming out of North Carolina. In the first step of what promises to be a long litigation road, Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hopgood found North Carolina's ultra-conservative school voucher program to be unconstitutional.

North Carolina Policy Watch:

In a stunning rebuke to state lawmakers’ efforts to bring school vouchers to North Carolina, Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood today found the recently-enacted “Opportunity Scholarship Program” unconstitutional and permanently enjoined disbursement of state funds for that purpose.

“The General Assembly fails the children of North Carolina when they are sent with public taxpayer money to private schools that have no legal obligation to teach them anything,” Hobgood said.

In his ruling, issued this morning from the bench, the judge broke down the program and detailed the many reasons why it failed constitutional muster:

This legislation unconstitutionally: