RALEIGH, N.C. _ The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned North Carolina's 2013 elections law that included a provision requiring voters to show ID at the polls.
The three-judge panel found that the law was adopted with "discriminatory intent." The case was sent back to U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder, who in April issued a 485-page ruling dismissing all claims in the challenge to the state's sweeping elections law overhaul.
"In holding that the legislature did not enact the challenged provisions with discriminatory intent, the court seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees," the ruling states. "This failure of perspective led the court to ignore critical facts bearing on legislative intent, including the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina."
The ruling prohibits North Carolina from requiring photo identification from voters in future elections, including the November 2016 general election, restores a week of early voting and preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and ensures that same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting will remain in effect.
Challengers of the elections law overhaul shepherded through the Republican-led General Assembly in 2013 and signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory quickly lauded the ruling.
Many echoed a line from the 83-page ruling that bats back contentions by advocates of the law, who claimed IDs were needed at the polls to prevent voter fraud.
"Although the new provisions target African-Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inept remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist," the 4th Circuit judges wrote.
"This ruling is a stinging rebuke of the state's attempt to undermine African-American voter participation, which had surged over the last decade," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "It is a major victory for North Carolina voters and for voting rights."
The 4th Circuit ruling is the third voting rights decision to be issued during the past two weeks.
The first decision was in Wisconsin, where a federal district judge found the state's ID law too restrictive.
Then the full 5th Circuit appeals court found that Texas's voter ID law violated the Voting Rights Act and opened the door for putting the state under federal supervision again.
"We applaud the appeals court for recognizing the discriminatory intent behind the monster voter suppression law," Bob Hall, director of Democracy N.C., a voting rights organization, said in a statement about the North Carolina case. "The ruling makes clear that the North Carolina General Assembly cherry-picked the law to suppress African-American and young voters because of the 2008 election. Today's ruling begins to right that wrong."
In North Carolina, the state could ask the full bench of the 4th Circuit to review the ruling. But some speculate that even if the full court agreed to review the case, there would not be a restoration of the voter ID requirement and other election law changes blocked by the three-judge panel before the November elections.
"Because of this ruling, North Carolinians will now be able to register and vote free of the obstacles created by the Legislature in 2013," said Southern Coalition for Social Justice senior attorney Allison Riggs.
