Subject matter jurisdiction—education funding—facial challenge never properly invoked—vacatur and dismissal with prejudice—In a decades-long case involving the scope of public education rights guaranteed under the North Carolina Constitution and whether the allocation of state financial resources adequately provided students with an opportunity to receive a sound basic education, where the initial 1994 complaint sought a determination of whether the education rights of schoolchildren in a select number of counties had been violated by the lack of adequate funding–as-applied challenges under the conditions then in existence–the trial court's subject matter jurisdiction was limited to a set of relatively narrow claims for relief as set forth in the parties' pleadings. However, since at least 2017, the nature of the litigation transformed from a set of as-applied challenges to a facial constitutional challenge against the entire state education system, which had itself undergone numerous changes, even though no party invoked the trial court's subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate a facial challenge to the current education system in either the original pleading or in any supplemental pleading seeking a permissive amendment. Therefore, any order or opinion issued in the case since 24 July 2017 was void ab initio for lack of jurisdiction. Further, since 2014, any facial constitutional challenges needed to be directed to a three-judge panel of the Superior Court, Wake County. For these reasons, the trial court's order issued on 17 April 2023 purporting to grant relief on a statewide basis was vacated and, where further adjudication of the original claims was no longer necessary or appropriate, the case was dismissed with prejudice. Hoke Cnty. Bd. of Educ. v. State , No. 425A21-3 (N.C. Apr. 2, 2026) (Author: Chief Justice Paul Newby)