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The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court decision to strike down North Carolina’s voter ID law, which was found to water down African Americans’ impact on elections.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Republican-dominated General Assembly’s appeal to reinstate the legislation, which was found to target black voters by making it more difficult to cast ballots. Republican lawmakers touted the legislation, passed in 2013, as a tool to ensure the legitimacy of elections by preventing voter fraud. The Richmond, Virginia-based appeals court, however, found North Carolina provided no evidence of fraud the law was meant to deter while it was enacted with bias against African Americans. The law was changed in 2015 to allow people who couldn’t get a state-issued photo ID to still vote.

“Today’s announcement is good news for North Carolina voters,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. “We need to be making it easier to vote, not harder – and the Court found this law sought to discriminate against African-American voters with ‘surgical precision.’ I will continue to work to protect the right of every legal, registered North Carolinian to participate in our democratic process. “

Civil rights groups, voters and the Obama administration sued, and the Justice Department pushed the Supreme Court to reject North Carolina’s appeal shortly before then-president Barack Obama left office.

“We are pleased this morning that the Supreme Court declined to review the lower court ruling that invalidated North Carolina’s 2013 voting law,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin said. “As the Appeals Court decision stated, the law targeted African American voters ‘with almost surgical precision.’ The right to vote is one of the most important, and this is a good day for good government.”

Cooper and N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein opposed the law and tried to withdraw the appeal, which was filed when Pat McCrory was governor. Cooper and Stein are Democrats. McCrory is a Republican.

“Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Stein have blocked the peoples desire for voter ID and other common sense voting protections," N.C. Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes said. “However, as noted by Chief Justice Roberts, ‘The denial of a writ of certiorari imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of the case.’



“Republicans will continue to fight for common sense and constitutional voter ID measures, similar to what many other states already have. While Governor Cooper and Attorney General Stein have stymied voter ID for now, they will ultimately lose in their efforts to block North Carolina citizens from having these protections.”

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