August, 31 2016, 04:45pm EDT
Supreme Court Denies Stay in North Carolina Voting Rights Case
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied North Carolina's request to stay a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's restrictive voting law.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Coalition for Social Justice challenged the law, charging it discriminates against African-American voters and unduly burdens the right to vote, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied North Carolina's request to stay a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's restrictive voting law.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Coalition for Social Justice challenged the law, charging it discriminates against African-American voters and unduly burdens the right to vote, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed the law was enacted "with discriminatory intent" against African-Americans and issued a sweeping ruling on July 29 that blocked voter ID and restored a week of early voting, same-day registration, preregistration, and out-of-precinct provisional voting.
"The Supreme Court was correct to deny North Carolina's last-ditch effort to undermine African-American voter participation in the November election," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "This ruling means that thousands of voters who would have been disenfranchised will now be able to participate in the presidential election."
The ACLU, ACLU of North Carolina, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice represent the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute, North Carolina Common Cause, Unifour Onestop Collaborative, and several individuals.
The ruling is at: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/league-women-voters-north-carolina-et-al-v-north-carolina-order
This press statement is at: https://www.aclu.org/news/supreme-court-denies-stay-north-carolina-voting-rights-case
More information is at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/league-women-voters-north-carolina-et-al-v-north-carolina
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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