North Carolina Passes Another Strict Voting Law at Its Peril

There’s already talk of the North Carolina general assembly (which has a veto-proof Republican majority) passing another strict voting rule (over the certain objections of the Democratic governor). This may happen even though the Supreme Court allowed the Fourth Circuit’s decision striking down the law as intentional racial discrimination in voting to stand.

It is worth remembering that a finding of intentional racial discrimination in voting gives a federal court the power to put a state or locality under federal supervision (or “preclearance”) for up to 10 years. Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act makes this “bail in” discretionary with the court after the intentional discrimination finding.

The Fourth Circuit declined to exercise this power in the last case, but a federal court could well do so next time, using the intentional discrimination finding in the last case as a predicate.

So more is at stake whenever the #ncga decides to make voting and registration harder again.

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