A federal judge struck down a challenge to North Carolina’s long-contested voter ID law Thursday, finding that the North Carolina NAACP failed to establish that the law was an unconstitutional infringement of Black and Latino voters’ rights in light of recent higher court rulings.
The challenge concerned North Carolina Senate Bill 824, passed in December 2018 over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, which requires voters to present photo identification before casting their ballots. The lawsuit alleged that the bill is racially discriminatory against Black and Latino voters, who disproportionately lack access to qualifying photo identification.
In her ruling, Middle District of North Carolina Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs made clear that she felt recent appellate and Supreme Court precedent prevented her from finding sufficient evidence of discrimination from voter ID laws, despite an unequal burden placed on voters of different races and historic voting discrimination against non-white voters.
“The record before this Court makes clear that it is simply much more difficult for racial minorities to vote and to have their vote counted,” Biggs wrote. “Even in the shadow of significant evidence of disparate impact, the law of the case doctrine compels the conclusion that the record before this Court does not establish discriminatory intent.”
The case, Biggs said, was not to determine whether North Carolina would require voter ID, as a 2018 constitutional amendment had already enshrined that in state law, but whether the subsequent bill implementing that requirement was racially discriminatory. “In making this determination, the Court must follow the law of the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit,” Biggs wrote.
Biggs wrote that recent precedent requires her to “assign less weight to the historical background,” though she noted North Carolina has a history of race-based voting discrimination even in the last two decades. And she noted that current case law requires “almost impenetrable deference to the presumption of legislative good faith.”
She cited the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, in which the court’s conservative majority limited challenges under the Voting Rights Act by requiring evidence of greater than usual burdens on voters as a whole, not those of a specific race or other group.
“The record before this Court does not allow it to conclude that the size of the burden imposed by S.B. 824 is greater than the usual burdens of voting,” Biggs wrote, finding that while the law poses “distinct and difficult burdens for voting” for individuals without voter ID, it does not do so on a large enough scale to meet the current legal standard.
State Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who conceded defeat in his primary election earlier this week, celebrated the decision as a win for secure elections.
“Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional,” Berger said in a statement. “This is a monumental win for the citizens of North Carolina and election integrity efforts.”
Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the North Carolina NAACP, said in a statement that the decision risks disenfranchising non-white voters and others who lack the means to obtain photo identification.
“This decision is deeply disappointing and ignores the real and documented barriers that voter ID laws create for Black, Latino, elderly, and low-income voters,” she said. “The NAACP North Carolina State Conference remains committed to protecting the fundamental right to vote and will continue pursuing every legal and civic avenue to ensure fair access to the ballot.”
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