A federal court today denied a motion to dismiss a challenge to Alabama’s discriminatory voter ID law brought by plaintiffs represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. The ruling comes in the case of Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Merrill, which LDF filed in the Northern District of Alabama in December of 2015 on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries, the Alabama NAACP, Giovana Ambrosio, Shameka Harris, Debra Silvers, and Elizabeth Ware.
In 2011, Alabama passed a law requiring voters to present photo identification before casting their ballots. LDF’s suit contends that the law violates the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by intentionally placing disproportionate burdens on African American and Latino voters. Expert reports estimate that more than 100,000 registered Alabama voters do not have a photo ID that complies with the law, and that black and Latino voters in the state are about twice as likely as white voters to lack such forms of identification.