North Carolina voter ID law is discriminatory -- federal appeals court

A federal appeals court struck down a North Carolina law requiring voters to present a photo ID before casting ballots in elections, finding that certain provisions in it were “enacted with racially discriminatory intent.” Friday’s unanimous ruling was handed down by the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, invalidating changes to state law passed in 2013 that the court deemed to have “disproportionately affected African-Americans.” The opinion from the three-judge panel in Richmond, Virginia reverses a lower-court ruling from April that had upheld the law. Many said that the law was necessary to thwart voter fraud, arguing that photo identification is necessary for lower-stakes endeavors such as driving a car or withdrawing money from a bank.