NC judge tosses voter ID and income tax amendments

[struggle4progress]

BY WILL DORAN
FEBRUARY 22, 2019 05:38 PM,
UPDATED FEBRUARY 22, 2019 10:32 PM

RALEIGH ... The North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members don’t truly represent the people of the state and thus should never have proposed constitutional amendments in the first place, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in his ruling that was issued late Friday afternoon.

“An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution,” he wrote ...

A previous effort to institute voter ID rules was struck down as unconstitutional, after a federal court found the law was written to intentionally “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

And although legislators made some changes in the new version of the voter ID rules approved in 2018, Spearman on Friday called it “straight out of the playbook from our state’s shameful past of institutional racism, and we are glad the judiciary has stepped in to stop it in its tracks” ...

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226652589.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Judge Rules Photo ID, Income Tax Amendments Unconstitutional

By STEVE HARRISON • 18 HOURS AGO

... The Southern Environmental Law Center and Forward Justice argued the case on behalf of the North Carolina NAACP.

Of the two amendments, photo ID was the most controversial. The Republican-controlled General Assembly wrote the implementing language for the amendment at the end of 2018, shortly for the GOP lost its veto-proof supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the implementing legislation, but the General Assembly overrode that veto.

Starting this year, North Carolina voters will need to show a photo ID to vote. There are more options available than a previous photo ID law, including many student IDs, as well as employee IDs issued by a state or local government ...

https://www.wfae.org/post/judge-rules-nc-photo-id-income-tax-amendments-are-unconstitutional#stream/0

[struggle4progress]

2. Court cites gerrymandering, rules new constitutional amendments invalid

Katie Wadington, Asheville Citizen Times
Published 7:23 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2019
Updated 8:27 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2019

... The ruling has its root in the status of congressional district maps that were ordered redrawn by the U.S. Supreme court in June 2017.

In August. federal judges affirmed an earlier decision striking North Carolina's congressional districts as unconstitutional because Republicans drew them with excessive partisanship.

Acting under an order of the U.S. Supreme Court to re-examine the case, the three-judge panel ruled in favor of election advocacy groups and Democrats who had sued to challenge the boundaries drawn in 2016.

Collins stated that because the high court ruled the districts to be gerrymandered, with two-thirds of the districts be redrawn, "the General Assembly lost its claim to popular sovereignty" ...

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/02/22/nc-court-cites-gerrymandering-voids-amendments-including-voter-id/2956429002/

[struggle4progress]

3. Superior Court judge strikes voter ID, income tax amendments

WTVD-AP
Saturday, February 23, 2019 07:46AM

... The voter ID constitutional amendment passed with 55 percent of the vote; the tax cap constitutional amendment passed with 57 percent of the vote.

The decision could be appealed by legislative leaders who were sued ...

https://abc11.com/politics/nc-judge-throws-out-voter-id-income-tax-amendments/5152038/

[struggle4progress]

4. Wake judge strikes voter ID, tax cap amendments

Posted 10:13 p.m. yesterday
Updated 11:43 p.m. yesterday

... The civil rights group had challenged four amendments, but only two of those – the voter ID and the income tax cap – were approved by majorities of voters in November ...

The NAACP lauded the decision. While nearly 30 legislative districts had been struck down by federal courts, the legislature ultimately redrew lines for two-thirds of the General Assembly's 170 districts. Democrats and their allies were particularly incensed over the voter ID requirement, calling it an unnecessary obstacle for people to vote ...

The other amendment struck down lowered the cap on state income tax rates from 10 percent to 7 percent. GOP supporters portrayed the proposal as a way to keep recent GOP laws cutting tax rates in place after they left office ...

https://www.wral.com/judge-strikes-down-north-carolina-voter-id-ok-d-by-voters/18210695/

[malaise]

5. Get thee to the greatest page

Very important

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Big news. . . . nt

[fascisthunter]

7. tides are turning

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Wow! Thanks for adding these.

[Gothmog]

9. I look forward to reading this opinion

[pecosbob]

10. NAL, but seems to me that's a rather revolutionary ruling for this country...

the same thing could be said for half the states in the nation.

[fescuerescue]

11. Without the gerry mandering

Neither of those 2 laws would have been passed by the voters.