"Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin held that the statute - first enacted in 1877 and reenacted in 1899 with the explicit purpose of disenfranchising Black North Carolinians - violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court rejected the State's argument the original law had been indirectly "cleansed" by subsequent changes to the North Carolina Constitution, emphasizing that the law itself had remained "essentially unchanged since the late nineteenth century.""
"After the lawsuit was filed, the North Carolina General Assembly passed Senate Bill 747 in 2023, adding an "intent" requirement to the law effective January 1, 2024. The Fourth Circuit rejected the State's argument, however, that this change "mooted" the lawsuit. Instead, the court agreed with the plaintiffs that the threat of prosecution under the old law remained possible and noted the State's pursuit of this appeal suggesting an appetite for bringing those cases."
North Carolina district attorneys cannot enforce a Jim Crow-era statute that criminalized voting by people with felony convictions who mistakenly believed they were eligible. A unanimous three-judge Fourth Circuit panel found the statute, enacted in 1877 and reenacted in 1899 to disenfranchise Black North Carolinians, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it was motivated by racial discrimination and continues to have that effect. The court rejected the State's claim that later constitutional changes "cleansed" the law, and held that Senate Bill 747's added "intent" requirement did not moot the case because threatened prosecutions chilled civic participation and diverted voter registration resources.
Read at SCSJ
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