Supreme Court Won’t Revive NC Voter-ID Law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it would not reinstate North Carolina ballot restrictions that a lower court declared targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.” The justices rejected an appeal submitted by the state’s Republican leaders, in turn leaving intact the lower court’s ruling that the provisions were racially discriminatory—and therefore in violation of a federal voting-rights law. North Carolina’s law had required voters to show a photo ID, eliminated same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting, and cut the number of early-voting days. Chief Justice John Roberts, in a statement Monday, stressed that the Supreme Court was not indicating that the lower court’s ruling was correct and that the rejection of an appeal “imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of the case.”