SECOND MODIFICATION OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

1. The United States and the State of North Carolina (collectively, “the Parties”) entered into a Settlement Agreement (“Agreement”), which the Parties jointly filed with the Court on August 23, 2012.  D.E. 2-2.  The Parties also filed a joint motion to conditionally dismiss the action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(2).  Joint Mot. to Dismiss, Aug. 23, 2012, D.E. 2.
2. On October 5, 2012, the Court granted the joint motion and retained jurisdiction to enforce the Agreement, incorporating by reference the terms of the Agreement.  Order, D.E. 13.
3. On October 27, 2017, the Parties entered into a modification to extend the Agreement’s anticipated termination date from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021, D.E. 30-1, which this Court entered on November 1, 2017.  Order, D.E. 32.
4. The parties now enter a second modification to further extend the notification date of Section V(C).  Section V(C) is replaced with the following:

The Court shall retain jurisdiction of this action for the purposes specified in Section V(A) until July 1, 2021 unless:

(1) the Parties jointly ask the Court to terminate the Agreement before July 1, 2021.  If the State has substantially complied with the Agreement before that date, the United States shall not unreasonably decline to join the State in a motion to terminate the Agreement early; or

(2) the United States disputes that the State is in substantial compliance with the Agreement as of July 1, 2021.  If so, the United States shall inform the Court and the State by March 1, 2021 that it disputes substantial compliance, and the Court may schedule further proceedings as appropriate.  In any such proceedings, the burden shall be on the State to demonstrate substantial compliance.

5. The present modification incorporates by reference and amends the Agreement the Parties entered on August 23, 2012 and the prior modification that the parties entered on October 27, 2017.  The present modification supplements and does not supplant the Agreement or the prior modification.  Unless otherwise noted, all definitions, obligations, and terms and conditions in the Agreement and prior modification remain in force for the term of the Agreement as extended.

Executed this 14th day of October

Executed on this 19th day of October 2020.

FOR THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA: