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North Carolina asks Supreme Court to reinstate voter ID law

North Carolina officials are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate key parts of the state's voter ID law blocked last month after a federal appeals court found that the measure intentionally targeted African-Americans.

Lawyers for the state filed an emergency application with Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday in an attempt to allow officials to conduct this November's election using the law's the photo ID requirement and reduce the number of early voting days from 17 to 10.

The motion, prepared by former George W. Bush administration Solicitor General Paul Clement, paints the 4th Circuit ruling as a deliberate and insubordinate assault on the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, freeing North Carolina and areas in 14 other states from having to "preclear" changes to voting rules under the Voting Rights Act.

"The ... fundamental problem with the Fourth Circuit’s decision is its complete misapprehension of the legal principles that govern an intentional discrimination inquiry,” the state's application says. “Left standing, its decision not only will threaten voter-ID laws throughout the country despite this Court’s decision in Crawford, but also will gut this Court’s decision in Shelby County.”

The motion filed by the state and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory also says: “If a voter-ID law can still be invalidated as intentionally discriminatory even when, as here, a State has done everything possible to avoid discriminatory impact, then no voter-ID law is safe. Under the Fourth Circuit’s unprecedented analysis, by contrast, the mere potential for retrogressive impact suffices to give rise to an inference of discriminatory intent—even if, as the District Court found here, retrogressive impact will not actually result.”

Roberts is likely to refer the application to the full court, which is operating shorthanded with just eight justices. The votes of five justices will be needed to put the 4th Circuit ruling on hold. That seems to be an uphill fight, since granting the application will require the vote of at least one of the four Democratic-appointed justices, all of whom dissented in Shelby County.

While the state is seeking to restore the photo ID rules, early voting days reduction and a ban on pre-registration of 16-year-olds, the application does not attempt to reinstate a ban on same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting.

North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, whose office participated in the defense of the law at the 4th Circuit, is not listed as counsel on the application filed Monday. A spokeswoman said his office is no longer involved in the cases, which were brought by civil rights groups and the Obama administration. They're expected to oppose the application.

The request for an emergency stay came 17 days after the 4th Circuit ruling — a longer delay than many observers expected and McCrory indicated after the loss at the 4th Circuit. The delay could make it less likely that the Supreme Court will step in by putting any action even closer to this fall's election.