A federal judge has struck down a North Carolina law criminalizing voting for people with felony convictions.
The law, originally passed in 1877, made it a Class I felony for people who vote in North Carolina without having their rights restored.
But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs wrote that the law “was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters.”
Although Black Americans make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, one-third of Black men have at least one felony conviction, according to a 2017 report.
Black North Carolinians account for nearly 53 percent of the state’s prison population — though they make up only 21.5 percent of North Carolina’s overall adult population, according to a 2016 report from the nonpartisan racial justice organization NC CRED.
In 2020, the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute Inc. and Action NC brought the suit to court, arguing the law violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause by targeting Black voters.
