|
{"source_url": "https://nsjonline.com", "url": "https://nsjonline.com/article/2020/01/judge-blocks-nc-voter-id-law/", "title": "Judge blocks NC voter ID law", "top_image": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg", "meta_img": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg", "images": ["http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082-326x245.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AP_19050644435633-326x245.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/15850_20170516t150915z_539911671_rc1e73d36f60_rtrmadp_3_usapoliticsdemocratso-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/7642_082616_mccrory_townhall_cn_1o-326x245.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Roy-879-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AP19362038700168-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AP19362106278021-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cropped-cropped-cropped-Blue_Name_Plate-1.png", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/8242_091316_lt_gov_debate_mg_02o-326x245.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_110928030938-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AP19345700144245-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/AP20001431516209-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AP19328800684290-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/michael-barone_thumb-80x60.jpg", "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AP_19325178259747-80x60.jpg"], "movies": [], "text": "RALEIGH \u2014 The federal judge who blocked the newest version of North Carolina\u2019s voter identification law cited the state\u2019s \u201csordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression\u201d as she ordered officials not to enforce the law in 2020.\n\nU.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs\u2019 decision was released Tuesday and prevents North Carolina from requiring voters to provide identification starting in 2020. The Republican leaders of the state House and Senate, however, have asked North Carolina\u2019s Department of Justice to appeal.\n\nThe federal court advised last week that Biggs would formally block the photo ID requirement until a lawsuit filed by state NAACP and others is resolved. Her decision provided insight into why she blocked the law, which she said was similar to a 2013 law that a federal appeals court struck down in 2016.\n\nThat court said the photo ID and other voter restrictions were approved with intentional racial discrimination in mind, and Biggs said the newest version of the law was no different in that respect.\n\n\u201cNorth Carolina has a sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression stretching back to the time of slavery, through the era of Jim Crow, and, crucially, continuing up to the present day,\u201d Biggs wrote.\n\nLegislators received a breakdown of voter behavior by race before passing the 2016 law and used that data to target African American voters, the court wrote in striking down that law. The defendants said there\u2019s no evidence of similar behavior before the most recent voter ID law.\n\nBut the same key lawmakers championed both bills, Biggs wrote. \u201c \u2026 they need not had racial data in hand to still have it in mind,\u201d the ruling says.\n\nThe approval of the new version, known as S.B. 824, was \u201cprocedurally unobjectional,\u201d Biggs wrote. But its closeness in time to the previous version; the fact that many of the same legislators were involved in both bills; the use of \u201cunconstitutionally gerrymandered maps\u201d and other issues \u201cindicate that something was amiss,\u201d she wrote.\n\nThe legislative history of the bill, including statements from its supporters, show that \u201crather than trying to cleanse the discriminatory taint\u201d imbued in the previous voter ID law, lawmakers tried to circumvent state and federal courts, she wrote.\n\nThe photo ID law would have been effective with the March 3 primary. But the requirement would have been put into motion sooner than that with mail-in absentee voters, who also would have had to provide an ID copy.\n\nThe Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the North Carolina conference of the NAACP, said he was \u201coverjoyed\u201d by Biggs\u2019 decision.\n\n\u201cQuite frankly, tears are coming to my eyes as I read the decision,\u201d he said. Biggs\u2019 \u201cstrong language is so appropriate\u201d as the nation approaches the 2020 elections, Spearman said.\n\n\u201cI hope it is something that will encourage people who have not exercised their right to vote to cast their votes,\u201d he said.\n\nAfter losing one court battle over voter ID, Republicans put a question on the November 2018 ballot enshrining voter ID in the state constitution. The amendment passed with 55% of the vote. The legislature approved a separate law in December 2018 detailing how to implement that amendment. Legal challenges were filed almost immediately.\n\nGOP legislators said they had to enact an ID law because voters had approved one. But Biggs, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama, said the constitutional amendment was a cover for legislators that allowed them to present themselves as \u201cfaithful servants whose hands were tied.\u201d\n\nThe argument that lawmakers had to pass this particular bill falls short, she wrote. \u201cWhile the legislature may had to pass some form of photo voter-ID law, it did not have to enact one which suffers from impermissible defects,\u201d she wrote.\n\nThe law did allow for more types of IDs to be used and allowed voters to get a free ID card or fill out a form explaining their \u201creasonable impediment\u201d to obtaining one.\n\nBut legislators rejected an amendment allowing the use of public assistance IDs, which Biggs described as \u201cparticularly suspect.\u201d\n\nRepublican legislators have urged the state DOJ to seek a stay of the temporary injunction, saying Biggs\u2019 ruling was \u201cinappropriate.\u201d\n\nTheir attorneys sent a letter Monday saying it\u2019s \u201cimperative that you seek a stay of Judge Biggs\u2019 injunction immediately to avoid irreparable harm to the state.\u201d\n\nA state DOJ spokeswoman didn\u2019t respond to an email seeking comment on the lawmakers\u2019 request.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": ["2020", "voter ID", "elections"], "authors": ["Martha Waggoner", "The Associated Press"], "publish_date": "Wed Jan 1 10:37:34 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-nc_webicon2-32x32.png", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "fb": {"app_id": 157762214781201}, "\u201dROBOTS\u201d": "\u201dNOARCHIVE\u201d", "\u201dGOOGLEBOT\u201d": "\u201dNOARCHIVE\u201d", "generator": "WordPress 5.3.2", "twitter": {"partner": "tfwp", "card": "summary_large_image", "title": "Judge blocks NC voter ID law", "description": "RALEIGH \u2014 The federal judge who blocked the newest version of North Carolina's voter identification law cited the state's \"sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression\" as she ordered officials not to enforce the law in 2020.\r\n\r\nU.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs' decision was", "image": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg", "url": "http://nsjonline.com/article/2020/01/judge-blocks-nc-voter-id-law/"}, "msapplication-TileImage": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-nc_webicon2-270x270.png", "og": {"locale": "en_US", "site_name": "The North State Journal", "title": "Judge blocks NC voter ID law", "url": "http://nsjonline.com/article/2020/01/judge-blocks-nc-voter-id-law/", "type": "article", "description": "RALEIGH \u2014 The federal judge who blocked the newest version of North Carolina's voter identification law cited the state's \"sordid history of racial discrimination and voter suppression\" as she ordered officials not to enforce the law in 2020.\r\n\r\nU.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs' decision was", "image": {"identifier": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg", "url": "http://nsjonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/AP_16211748813082.jpg"}, "updated_time": "2020-01-01T10:37:34-04:00"}, "article": {"published_time": "2020-01-01T10:37:34-04:00", "modified_time": "2020-01-01T10:37:34-04:00", "section": "News", "publisher": "https://www.facebook.com/NorthStateJournal/"}}, "canonical_link": "http://nsjonline.com/article/2020/01/judge-blocks-nc-voter-id-law/"} |
