Federal Judge Rejects NC NAACP Argument, Upholds Voter ID

By Cash Michaels –

In a 134-page ruling, a federal judge normally sympathetic to the NC NAACP’s opposition against the use of voter photo ID in North Carolina elections last week rejected the civil rights organization’s arguments in a case that has been before the federal court for several years.

US District Judge Loretta Biggs, originally appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, ruled last week that despite her position that voter ID has a disparate impact on African Americans hasn’t changed, the law governing it has.

“This case is not about whether North Carolina law will require that voters show photo identification when they go to the polls,” Judge Biggs wrote. “That question was settled on November 6, 2018, when approximately 55% of North Carolina’s registered voters enshrined a photo voter identification requirement in the State Constitution.”

Saying that “…we must accept the will of the majority of voters on this issue unless or until the people of North Carolina decide otherwise,” Biggs continued. “Instead, the central issue before this Court is whether Plaintiffs have shown that the North Carolina General Assembly, when designing the constitutional amendment’s implementing legislation, North Carolina Senate Bill 824 (hereinafter ‘S.B. 824’), violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the US Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” the order continued. “In making this determination, the Court must follow the law of the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit.”

Judge Biggs originally held a trial on the voter ID law two years ago in May 2024. But she noted that while the lawsuit aiming to stop the voter ID law was filed seven years ago, much has changed since then.

“Since that time, the law of the United States Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals related to the issues presented by this case have undergone, and continue to undergo, dramatic change. Consequently, this Court, having given careful consideration to the preliminary injunction record, the limited evidence presented at trial, and the arguments of counsel, concludes that it is compelled by controlling case law to render Judgment in favor of the Defendants on both Plaintiffs’ Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment claim and Plaintiffs’ Section 2 claim under the Voting Rights Act.”

The NC NAACP has not commented on Judge Biggs’s ruling, but a jubilant Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, who recently lost in his re-election bid during the Republican primary and weeks later decided not to further challenge the results, praised the ruling.

“Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter ID law is constitutional,” Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a statement. “This is a monumental win for the citizens of North Carolina and election integrity efforts.”

In another federal court ruling, a judge has rejected challenges to changes to North Carolina’s law governing same-day voter registration.