Source: News & Observer
Oral arguments on North Carolina’s voter ID lawsuit recently began at the US Supreme Court. Arguments on the merit of the case itself have not yet begun, but the justices have heard arguments on who should defend the lawsuit filed by NAACP.
While this stage of the case is procedural, the decision will have a significant political impact on the case. So far, the State of North Carolina has been defending the lawsuit under the leadership of Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat. Republican legislative leaders have asked to intervene in the case to defend the voter ID law that they passed.
If the court grants the request of legislative leaders, it would give Republicans in the General Assembly influence over the legal strategy of the case as well as allow them to hire their own private lawyers to work on the case at the expense of taxpayers.
The voter ID law in question was passed in 2018 after a previous attempt at requiring voter ID was declared unconstitutional in 2013. The 2013 law was struck down for racial discrimination and the US Supreme Court declined to take up the case. Republican legislative leaders are seeking to intervene in this lawsuit in an effort to produce a different outcome and allow voter ID to be implemented in North Carolina.
