Court Strikes Down NC’s “Discriminatory” Voter ID Law

The Raleigh News & Observer reports:

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina wrote the state’s voter ID law with the intent, at least in part, to make it harder for Black residents to vote, a panel of state judges ruled on Friday. There’s no evidence that legislators who supported the law were motivated by racism, the judges wrote. But it’s still discriminatory to target Black voters, they said, even if it’s done for purely political reasons.

In this case, the political motivation was that Black voters almost universally support Democratic politicians, they said. Friday’s ruling doesn’t necessarily end the state lawsuit, since a lawyer for N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore criticized the judges and said they plan to appeal. “Once again, liberal judges have defied the will of North Carolinians on election integrity,” said Moore attorney Sam Hayes in a press release.

Read the full article.

?Breaking: North Carolina state court strikes down strict voter ID law. “S.B. 824 was enacted in part for a discriminatory purpose and would not have been enacted in its current form but for its tendency to discriminate against African American voters.”https://t.co/yyOP9lIB9S

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) September 17, 2021