Wright is the Wilmington legislator recently indicted on six state felony charges. He now faces the prospect of being booted from the N.C. General Assembly.

Wright’s lawyer, Irving Joyner, recently responded to a special legislative committee investigating him on roughly the same charges as the criminal counts: that he pocketed campaign donations and solicited a letter from a state official that included a promise of a bogus state grant in order to obtain a bank loan. Joyner claimed that the legislature has no power to discipline his client.

“There is no provision in the North Carolina Constitution which provides for or authorizes the North Carolina General Assembly and its House of Representatives, in particular, to discipline any of its members,” Joyner wrote in response to the committee’s actions. “The failure to include authority in the State Constitution to discipline and expel its elected members acts as a limitation on what this General Assembly is constitutionally allowed to do.”

Oh really? Somehow, he missed a little part of the constitution. Article II, Section 20 reads, “Each house shall be judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members ...”

Joyner and Wright might want to reflect upon the meaning of that sentence. You see, it doesn’t mean that the House, after a few lengthy hearings and the court-like process in which it is now engaged, can expel Wright. It could, with the help of the governor, reconvene this week and kick him out.

If the House did so, it’s not real clear that Wright would have much recourse. Sure, voters in his district might bring some type of federal voting-rights lawsuit. But any state court wading into the matter would be breaching the constitutional separation of powers set up in the article.

The plain language is clear. It doesn’t state, “Each house, after consultation with the courts of North Carolina, shall be judge ...” There’s only one judge on the matter: the membership of the House.

Over the years, legislative leaders haven’t been prone to abuse the power given them by the constitution. They haven’t ignored the will and rights of voters. If it happens, Wright would be the first legislator removed from office since 1880. It’s a power that the legislature hasn’t invoked, in part, because most legislators finding themselves in such a predicament resign rather than fight the inevitable. Former House Speaker Jim Black took that course a year ago.

Wright, though, has always been a charmer. Back when he exercised some real power in the House, he was the guy who — in the midst of chaos or controversy — would hit you with that ultra-calm, soft, smooth voice. Behind each word lay reassurance: It’s no problem.

Wright won’t be charming his way out of this mess. And no slick reading of the state constitution will change it.