A federal appeals court on Friday struck down North Carolina’s voter identification requirement. A law professor and a political science professor comment below.Quotes: • “The ruling by the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturning North Carolina’s voter ID law is a major victory for voting rights lawyers and activists and a stinging rebuke of the Republican-controlled General Assembly and of federal district court judge Thomas Schroeder," says Kerry Haynie, an associate professor of political science at Duke University. "The appellate court indicated the judge ignored ‘critical facts bearing on legislative intent, including the inextricable link between race and politics in North Carolina.’” “This ruling will very likely have a noticeable impact on elections in November, both at the state and national level. North Carolina is now, without question, a battleground state in which the Hillary Clinton and other Democrats have received a major boost." • Bio:Kerry Haynie is an associate professor of political science and African and African American Studies; director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Social Sciences, Duke University. His research and teaching interests are in race and ethnic politics, legislative processes, state-level politics, Southern politics, and comparative urban politics.http://polisci.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=2852&subpage=profile • Archive video interview (different subject):(1:49 mark) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_A1166xE2s • For more comment, contact Kerry Haynie at:klhaynie@duke.edu _ _ _ _ Guy-Uriel Charles • Quotes:"This is a tremendous win for the plaintiffs," says Duke University law professor Guy-Uriel Charles, an expert on election law and race issues. “The Court concluded that North Carolina acted with discriminatory intent when it enacted its omnibus voting bill, and that the state’s reasons for passing this law were not credible. A complete victory." • Bio:Charles is the founding director of the Duke Law Center on Law, Race and Politics. He is an expert in and frequent public commentator on constitutional law, election law, campaign finance, redistricting, politics, and race. He is co-founder of the Colored Demos blog, www.coloreddemos.blogspot.com, and teaches constitutional law, and race and the law. https://law.duke.edu/fac/charles/ For additional comment, contact Charles at:charles@law.duke.edu
