A federal judge in North Carolina ruled Thursday that the state’s 2018 photo voter identification requirement may continue, siding with state legislative leaders and elections officials after a trial brought by the state NAACP and local chapters. The decision by U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs addressed claims from civil rights groups that the law was adopted with discriminatory intent toward Black and Latino voters.
Biggs’ ruling comes after she had previously blocked enforcement of the 2018 law in 2019, finding it was tainted by a history tied to a prior 2013 voter ID measure that had been struck down on similar grounds. In the Thursday decision, Biggs again found that the evidence in the trial record pointed to unequal burdens when it came to obtaining the required IDs, including evidence that those burdens fell more on Black and Hispanic voters.
The judge wrote in a 134-page decision that a disparate number of racial minority voters would be among those who do not possess the required ID on Election Day, and she said that for many, their vote would not count once the election is certified. Even so, she said controlling case law required her to assign less weight to the historical background and to give “almost impenetrable deference to the presumption” that lawmakers acted in good faith when approving the 2018 law.
State officials had argued that the law was race-neutral and more permissive than the earlier 2013 requirement, which had been struck down. Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders defending the law also told the court that the general assembly had legitimate interests in improving voter confidence and preventing voter fraud, and they said nationwide voter identity fraud is rare.
Republican leaders framed Thursday’s decision as a confirmation of constitutionality. In a news release, North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger said the ruling “we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional.”
The NAACP and its local chapters had challenged the requirement under the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act, arguing that Republicans passed the 2018 photo ID law in a bid to discourage voters who historically support Democrats. At trial, the plaintiffs’ case centered on how the requirement could affect access to voting for Black and Latino residents, and on the history of discrimination they argued supported an intent finding.
Deborah Dicks Maxwell, the president of the North Carolina NAACP, said Thursday the decision was “deeply disappointing and ignores the real and documented barriers” that voter ID laws can create for some voters. No appeal decision had been made immediately after the ruling.
Despite the federal litigation, North Carolina’s 2018 voter ID law has been in effect for municipal elections since 2023, including the March 3 primary, with nearly all results certified on Wednesday, according to the court fight’s procedural timeline described in the ruling coverage. In a separate state lawsuit, the law initially was struck down, but the North Carolina Supreme Court later upheld it after switching from a Democratic to a Republican majority and agreeing to revisit the matter.
In Thursday’s ruling, Biggs said a federal appeals court had reversed her 2019 preliminary injunction, writing that she had placed too much emphasis on past conduct of the General Assembly when evaluating the 2018 law. Biggs said Thursday that, based on the preliminary-injunction record, the limited evidence presented at trial, and the arguments of counsel, the court was compelled by controlling case law to rule for legislative leaders and the state elections board.
North Carolina’s voter-ID framework includes provisions aimed at helping voters obtain acceptable documents and ensuring ballots can still be counted in some circumstances. The state offers free photo ID cards for voting at county election offices statewide and at the Division of Motor Vehicles, and it says voters lacking photo ID can have their votes counted if they complete an exception form or bring their ID to election officials before the final tallies.
The case reflects a broader patchwork of state election rules: the National Conference of State Legislatures says 36 states request or require identification at the polls, and 23 of them seek photo ID.