The North Carolina voter ID law that was passed back in 2013 has just been blocked by a federal appeals court:
#BREAKING: Federal appeals court overturns NC voter ID law https://t.co/HOhsLu4yNI #wral
— WRAL NEWS in NC (@WRAL) July 29, 2016
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that North Carolina lawmakers adopted a voter ID law in 2013 “with discriminatory intent” and has issued an injunction against its enforcement.
Here’s more from Politico:
A federal appeals court has struck down North Carolina’s voter identification law, holding that it was “passed with racially discriminatory intent.”
The ruling also invalidated changes the state made in 2013 to early voting, same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting, and preregistration.
The state could seek to appeal the decision to the full bench of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals or to the Supreme Court, but it seems unlikely those courts will step in to restore the voter ID law and other voting-related changes in advance of the November election.
UPDATE: Here’s more from TPM including the full decision:
In the opinion, the panel of judges said that the law restricted voting in ways that “disproportionately affected African Americans” and that its provisions targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.” It said the state’s defense of the law was “meager.”
“Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the state’s true motivation,” the opinion said.