Durham, N.C. (March 3, 2022) — The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s petition to expedite consideration of the state and legislative defendants’ appeal of a state court judgment striking down the state’s racially-discriminatory voter ID law.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice originally filed the petition in January, seeking immediate review by the North Carolina Supreme Court because the case, Holmes v. Moore, “raises issues of significant public interest,” and any delay in the case’s resolution would likely cause voter confusion, poll worker disruption, and the real risk of voter disenfranchisement across the state.
Jeff Loperfido, Senior Counsel at Southern Coalition for Social Justice, praised the Court’s move to expedite the appeal process.
“North Carolina voters deserve certainty in their elections,” said Loperfido. “The Court’s action to hear this case without delay brings our state one step closer to the important work of replacing the current discriminatory voter ID requirement with a law respecting the constitutional rights of all North Carolina voters.”
Filed in December 2018, Holmes v. Moore was brought by Southern Coalition for Social Justice and pro bono counsel from the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, on behalf of five North Carolina voters. In Holmes, plaintiffs alleged North Carolina’s 2018 voter ID law (S.B. 824), approved by a Republican-led supermajority in a lame-duck session, was racially motivated.
In September 2021, following a three-week trial, the majority of a three-judge Superior Court panel struck down voter ID, saying, “[the law] was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African American voters.”
The N.C. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on the voter ID appeal this summer.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Gino Nuzzolillo, gino@scsj.org, 402-415-4763
Melissa Boughton, melissa@scsj.org, 830-481-6901
Sailor Jones, sailor@scsj.org, 919-260-5906
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.