Supreme Court allows North Carolina voting restrictions
[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] issued an order [text, PDF] Wednesday allowing North Carolina to do away with same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting. The order stays a decision [text, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which held that those provisions of the North Carolina law [text, PDF] should not be enforced. Although the order was issued without comment, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, joined by Sonia Sotomayor:
The Court of Appeals determined that at least two of the measures—elimination of same-day registration and termination of out-of-precinct voting—risked significantly reducing opportunities for black voters to exercise the franchise in violation of §2 of the Voting Rights Act. I would not displace that record-based reasoned judgment.Ginsburg went on to state that the Fourth Circuit's stay on the implementation of the law should remain in place until the Supreme Court hears the case in full. Opponents of the law argue that it was designed mainly to suppress minority voter turnout, but Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, a supporter of the law, stated, "These commonsense reforms will help support voter integrity in North Carolina while protecting every citizen's constitutional right to vote." The Supreme Court's order means that the restrictions will likely be in place for this year's midterm congressional election. Issues surrounding voting rights [JURIST backgrounder] have been hotly contested in the US recently, especially in regards to voter ID laws. Earlier this week a congressional study [JURIST report] indicated that states that have toughened voter IS laws have experienced steeper drops in election turnout than those that have not, including disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters. On Monday the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that Wisconsin's voter ID law is constitutional. Also Monday a Texas judge filed suit [JURIST report] claiming that the state's voter ID law violates the Texas Constitution. The Arkansas Supreme Court [official website] began hearing oral arguments last Thursday to determine if that state's photo ID law is constitutional.
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