The NC Voter ID Law Goes To Trial (Again)

 

At 9:30 tomorrow morning in the federal courthouse in Winston-Salem, federal District Judge Loretta Biggs will begin hearing evidence in the latest challenge to North Carolina's voter ID law. The newest version of that law has been in effect since before the March primary, but its history is twisted (in the truest sense of that word), and for its long string of court challenges you almost need a roadmap.

The case has the potential to block the state’s voter ID requirement before the 2024 election — though an appeal is likely regardless of which way Biggs rules. 

The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP first sued the state over its voter ID requirement in 2018, setting in motion a case that has now lasted over five years, ricocheting between appellate courts and conflicting with a similar case at the state level. 

In its trial brief, the NAACP argues that the voter ID requirement “was enacted with discriminatory intent” in violation of the U.S. Constitution and “has already had a discriminatory impact on the right of Black and Latino citizens in North Carolina to participate in the political process.” [Kyle Ingram]