US top court rejects bid to revive North Carolina voting law
Source: Reuters
By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON
The U.S. Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin of North Carolina's strict voter-identification law on Monday, rejecting a Republican bid to revive the measure struck down by a lower court for intentionally aiming to suppress black voter turnout.
The justices left in place the July 2016 ruling by the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voiding the law passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by a Republican governor.
The state's new Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and its Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, had told the justices they wanted to drop the state's appeal of the 4th Circuit ruling but the Republican-led state legislature said it should be able to intervene in the case to defend the law. The appeal was filed by Cooper's predecessor, Republican Pat McCrory, before the Democrat took office in January.
Chief Justice John Roberts, citing a "blizzard of filings over who is and who is not authorized to seek review in this court under North Carolina law," wrote a two-page statement noting that the confusion over who represents the state was a reason not to hear the dispute.
The North Carolina law required that certain forms of government-issued photo identification cards be presented by voters, allowing for example driver's licenses, passports and military identification cards but not public assistance cards used disproportionately by minorities in North Carolina. Other provisions included cutting early voting days and ending same-day voter registration.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-election-idUSKCN18B1QB
Supreme Court leaves in place a ruling that struck down N.C.'s voter ID law
By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/15/17 09:55 AM EDT
The Supreme Court is leaving in place a ruling that struck down North Carolina's voter identification law as unconstitutional because it was intended to suppress the votes of African Americans.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued an unusual statement Monday saying the high court's decision not to wade into the case should not be taken as an indication of the justices' views on the broader issues at stake. He suggested the high court's decision not to wade into the case was because of the confusion over the newly-elected Democratic governor and attorney general's efforts to have the state back out of the litigation and accept the 4th Circuit's decision last year voiding the 2013 law.
No justice dissented from the court's decision not to take the case or indicated whether he or she agreed with Roberts' explanation of why the court was punting on the case.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/15/supreme-court-leaves-in-place-a-ruling-that-struck-down-ncs-voter-id-law-238392
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