Statement from Rick Glazier, Executive Director of the NC Justice Center, on court ruling striking down NC’s voter suppression law

Today is a massive victory for voting rights and our state’s disenfranchised voters

RALEIGH (July 29, 2016) — The NC Justice Center joins the rest of the state’s civil rights community in celebrating today’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that struck down North Carolina’s unprecedented and harmful voter suppression law.

Today is a massive victory for voting rights, the groups that challenged the law’s provisions – including the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, NC NAACP, and other groups across the state – and most importantly the North Carolinians who had been disenfranchised by this law.

The court rightfully could not ignore that our state legislature enacted some of the most egregious, far-sweeping restrictions on residents’ voting rights in modern history. Such restrictions were racially motivated, patently discriminatory, and designed to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians from their fundamental right to vote on the basis of the color of their skin. Thankfully, the rule of law prevails in the federal courts.

At the time of its passage, I said on the floor of the House that lawmakers had ambushed the people of North Carolina. Today, the Fourth Circuit – in the light of day – restores the civil rights that were stolen in the still of the night. For now at least, the voting rights of all our citizens are restored.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Rick Glazier, rick@ncjustice.org, 910.308.7988 (cell); Julia Hawes, julia@ncjustice.org, 919.863.2406.