In an important civil rights victory Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld a July decision to reject voting restrictions enacted in North Carolina.
The restrictions were enacted by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state legislature in 2013 shortly after the Supreme Court eliminated an important provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The provision insisted that in areas with a history of voting discrimination, the Justice Department or federal courts had to approve changes to voting rules before they could be passed into law.
North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and several other states moved immediately to implement strict voter ID requirements. North Carolina’s suite of requirements were among the strictest in the nation, and passed into law as H.B. 589.
The Advancement Project posted a brief article that neatly summed up the law’s many deleterious effects:
“H.B. 589 shortened the early voting period by a full week, eliminated same-day registration, prohibited provisional ballots cast out of precinct from being counted, expanded the ability to challenge voters, eliminated a pre-registration program for 16- and 17-year olds, and implemented a strict photo ID requirement. Each regulation is evidenced to have a statistically disparate impact on voters of color.”
The law was appealed by a large coalition that included the North Carolina NAACP, the Obama Administration, several churches, and concerned citizens. In late July, the suit went before the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, who delivered the court’s unanimous opinion, had to point out the obvious for those who didn’t quite get it:
“Voting in many areas of North Carolina is racially polarized. … The Supreme Court has explained that polarization renders minority voters uniquely vulnerable to the inevitable tendency of elected officials to entrench themselves by targeting groups unlikely to vote for them. In North Carolina, restriction of voting mechanisms and procedures that most heavily affect African Americans will predictably redound to the benefit of one political party and to the disadvantage of the other.”
And it’s no secret as to which party benefits from African-American support. Judge Motz even called the Republicans out on their cynical “color-blind” bullshit by recounting the origin of the law:
“Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.”
In other words, the GOP needed to stop playing games. But instead of accepting that they were wrong, North Carolina insisted that the law was just and pushed the case to the Supreme Court.
Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court conferred to decide the case.
The justices were evenly divided along ideological lines, with four justices in favor of allowing North Carolina to have its way, and the other four in favor of, well, making voting easier for American citizens.
Unable to reach a majority, the Supreme Court tie vote requires that the lower court’s verdict must stand. Thanks, Mitch McConnell!
Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP celebrated the ruling in a statement:
“Today we achieved another major victory for justice, African Americans, Latinos, and all North Carolinians.”
Watch this video more information about the battle over the North Carolina voter restrictions:
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
