The 83-page decision read in part:
“Although the new provisions target
African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt
remedies and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist.”
Raw racism revealed in GOP voter law: Jill Lawrence
Referring to the state’s “pre-1965 history of pernicious discrimination,” the judges said the voting law imposes the first meaningful restrictions since that date. And it came into being “literally within days” of the Supreme Court’s Shelby decision releasing North Carolina and other states from having to pre-clear voting access changes with the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act.
So what happened within hours of that decision? Lawmakers announced they would turn a small, unremarkable bill on ID requirements into a large bill stuffed with new restrictions. Guided by the study of racial voting patterns they requested, the restrictions killed or limited IDs, time periods, registration methods and other mechanisms disproportionately used by black people.
Citing "the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina," a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said state lawmakers intentionally imposed the restrictions to make it more difficult for blacks to vote.
"The new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision," the judges said. "They constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist." -
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