Legislature Seeks Emergency Stay to Voter ID Ban After AG Stein Refuses to Do So

Federal judge effectively invalidated amendment to NC Constitution requiring voter ID, and prohibited legislature from participating in case

Legislature asked Dem AG Josh Stein, who opposes voter ID, to seek a stay as appeal advances. He refused.

Legislature now pressing case to be able to defend itself, asks judge to stay ruling

The North Carolina legislature today requested an emergency stay of Judge Loretta Biggs’s injunction blocking voter ID from taking effect indefinitely. Judge Biggs issued her injunction despite a majority of North Carolina voters adding the voter ID requirement to the state’s Constitution in 2018.

Senator Warren Daniel (R-Burke) said, “The votes of two millions citizens to amend their own Constitution to require voter ID were thrown out by one unelected Democratic judge. The legislature will fight with every tool at our disposal to reverse this lawless decision that overturns the will of the people.”

Judge Biggs determined in her ruling that the legislature acted with “discriminatory intent” in passing voter ID, even though one of the three primary bill sponsors is an African American Democrat and two other African American Democrats voted for the bill.

Judge Biggs has prohibited the legislature from defending the voter ID law that it wrote. The only parties she has permitted to defend voter ID are Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s administration and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, both of whom oppose voter ID.

Attorney General Stein announced last week that he is refusing the legislature’s request to push for a stay.

In its stay application, the legislature focused on the absurdity of the notion that several black Democrats who sponsored or supported voter ID acted with intent to discriminate against other African Americans. The legislature also again argued that the people of North Carolina acted to amend their Constitution, and one judge should not suppress the votes of millions of citizens.

The legislature also pushed Judge Biggs to reverse her decision prohibiting the State of North Carolina from providing photo IDs to residents for free, urging her to “not deprive citizens of North Carolina of their right to obtain a free photo ID from their county board of elections.”

Senator Daniel continued, “A Democratic federal judge has forced North Carolina to stop issuing photo identification cards to its citizens for free. It is unclear to me how issuing free ID cards is discriminatory to anyone, but logic and the rule of law seem to have no bearing on this judge.”