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Bloomberg Law The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly can step into defend the state’s voter identification law even though the state’s Democratic attorney general is already doing so, the US Supreme Court said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for an 8-1 court on Thursday agreed with North Carolina Senate leader Philip Berger and House Speaker Timothy Moore that the state Assembly had an interest in defending the law, particularly given the politically divisive nature of the legislation.
The 2018 voter law was passed over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, and challenged by the NAACP in federal court, saying it disproportionately harms Black and Latino voters. The litigation was stayed pending the Supreme Court ruling on the procedural question.
Gorsuch emphasized that North Carolina law specifically allows their legislative leaders to defend statutes against constitutional challenges. “Within wide constitutional bounds, States are free to structure themselves as they wish,” he said.
Read more:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/republicans-can-defend-north-carolina-voter-law-justices-say
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissent.
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GOP Can Defend North Carolina Voter Law, Supreme Court Says (Original post)
