North Carolina voting restrictions struck down

A federal appeals court Friday struck down North Carolina's array of voting restrictions enacted in 2013, saying they all "disproportionately affected African Americans."

The decision came a week after a similar ruling against Texas' voter ID law, giving civil rights groups two major victories leading up to the November elections. 

Appeals court strikes down Texas voter ID law

Both cases can be appealed to the Supreme Court, but the justices would not have time to consider them before Nov. 8. Based on the appeals court verdicts, the high court is likely to insist that the restrictions be set aside in the meantime.

Citing "the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina," a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said state lawmakers intentionally imposed the restrictions to make it more difficult for blacks to vote.

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"The new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision," the judges said. "They constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist."

The North Carolina and Texas laws were enacted following the Supreme Court's ruling in 2013 striking down part of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of discrimination to get federal permission before changing voting procedures.

While Texas imposed the toughest photo ID rules, North Carolina's law was the most expansive of any in the nation. In addition to identification requirements, it eliminated same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting and reduced early voting.

The law had been challenged by the North Carolina NAACP and other civil rights groups, along with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Without court action, the law threatened to impact the presidential race in the politically balanced state, which President Obama won narrowly in 2008 but Mitt Romney won back for Republicans in 2012. 

The law had come under attack last month when the panel heard oral arguments. Judge Henry Floyd said the legislature's rush to impose limits after getting a green light from the Supreme Court in 2013 "looks pretty bad to me."

Federal appeals court skeptical of North Carolina voting restrictions

Seventeen states have new voting procedures in place for the November election, more than half of which are being challenged in court. Many require voters to show photo identification, such as the Texas law. Others target rules for registering, early voting and provisional voting, such as North Carolina's law.

Last month, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, a generally conservative court, ruled 9-6 that Texas' law was not intended to discriminate but had that effect on minority voters. The law could have left up to 600,000 voters without the proper identification in this fall's elections, opponents claimed.