A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a North Carolina law requiring people to show identification before voting.
The unanimous decision was handed down by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory supported the law, saying it would help prevent voter fraud. But the court found that the law unfairly discriminated against black voters, and was imposed after a surge of black voters in the state, which the court said showed there was “discriminatory intent” by those who pushed the law.
“We can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz said in her opinion for the majority.
North Carolina lawmakers in 2013 also eliminated same-day voter registration, rolled back a week of early voting and did away with out-of-precinct voting. These changes will now be invalidated, per the court’s Friday ruling.
The ACLU of North Carolina called it a “huge win” on Twitter.
BREAKING: 4th Circuit Crt strikes down NC’s voter ID law, reinstates same-day registration, out of precinct voting, early voting. Huge win!
— ACLU of North Carolina (@ACLU_NC) July 29, 2016
