US Appeals Court Invalidates NC Voter I.D./Restriction Laws

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>North Carolina lawmakers overhauled the state’s election law soon after the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which freed certain states with a history of discrimination from a Voting Rights Act requirement that they receive federal approval before changing voting rules. North Carolina was one of the states.

>Legislators quickly eliminated same-day voter registration, rolled back of a week of early voting and put an end to out-of-precinct voting. The appeals court’s ruling reinstates those provisions that civil rights groups, led by the state NAACP, said were used disproportionately by African American voters.

>The panel seemed to say it found the equivalent of a smoking gun. “Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices,” Motz wrote. “Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.”

>The panel found the law was passed with racially discriminatory intent, violating the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. It said that “intentionally targeting a particular race’s access to the franchise because its members vote for a particular party, in a predictable manner, constitutes discriminatory purpose.”


>Democrats and civil rights groups have also filed suits in Ohio and Arizona. The North Carolina decision by the Richmond-based court on Friday reverses a 485-page ruling by District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder that upheld the voting measures passed in 2013.