Supreme Court blocks North Carolina's strict voter ID law

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

published 31 August 2016

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court denied a request from North Carolina to allow three provisions of its strict voting rights law to go back into effect by the November election.

The justices were split 4-4, leaving intact a lower court opinion that struck down the law. North Carolina's lead lawyer, Paul Clement, asked that three provisions be reinstated: the elimination of pre-registration for 16-year-olds; the need for voters to present one of eight different forms of ID at the polls; and the reduction of early voting days from 17 to 10.

The law has been challenged by civil rights groups and the Department of Justice, who said it had a disparate impact on minority voters, CNN reports. "Once an electoral law has been found to be racially discriminatory, and injunctive relief has been found to be necessary to remedy that discrimination, the normal rule is that the operation of the law must be suspended," acting Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn said. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) issued a statement calling it a "common-sense voter ID law," and said the state "has been denied basic voting rights already granted to more than 30 other states to protect the integrity of one person, one vote."

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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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