Judges strike down state’s voter ID law

RALEIGH, N.C. >> North Carolina judges struck down the state’s latest photo voter identification law on Friday, agreeing with minority voters that Republicans rammed through rules tainted by racial bias as a way to remain in power.

Two of the three trial judges declared the December 2018 law is unconstitutional, even though it was designed to implement a photo voter ID mandate added to the North Carolina Constitution in a referendum just weeks earlier. They said the law was rushed and intentionally discriminates against Black voters, violating their equal protections.

The law “was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African American voters,” Superior Court Judges Michael O’Foghludha and Vince Rozier wrote in their 102page order.

“Other, less restrictive voter ID laws would have sufficed to achieve the legitimate nonracial purposes of implementing the constitutional amendment requiring voter ID, deterring fraud, or enhancing voter confidence,” the judges added.

The majority decision, which followed a threeweek trial in April, will be appealed, Republicans at the legislature said. A state appeals court had previously blocked the law’s enforcement last year. The law remains unenforceable with this ruling.

With a similar lawsuit in federal court set to go to trial this January and another state court lawsuit now on appeal, it’s looking more unlikely that the current voter ID law will be enforced in the 2022 elections.

Allison Riggs, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, praised the decision. Riggs said the ruling reflects “how the state’s Republicancontrolled legislature undeniably implemented this legislation to maintain its power by targeting voters of color.”