N.C. NAACP, Forward Justice & Southern Environmental Law Center Respond to North Carolina Legislature’s Newly Proposed Constitutional Amendments
RALEIGH, NC — Earlier this month a three-judge panel held a status conference in the N.C. NAACP’s case challenging two constitutional amendments initiated by an illegally racially gerrymandered legislature. The panel ordered the attorneys to propose a plan for next steps, including discovery, by the end of this week. A couple of days after this status conference, the legislature introduced two new constitutional amendments related to the two already being challenged by N.C. NAACP in court: One about photo Voter ID – that would modify the constitution to say that voters voting by mail are required to show ID, and another on the State income tax cap – lowering it to 5%. Over the long term, these amendments would enshrine regressive policies into our constitution that would make it harder for marginalized groups to vote and starve our state of funds for things we all need like public schools and environmental protection.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs say it seems far from coincidental that legislative leaders have chosen to advance two amendments so close in aspect to the amendments that are the subject of their lawsuit just as discovery is about to begin. Indeed, Senator Berger told the press that he believes passing these amendments could moot out their case entirely. The amendments appear then to be a short-term litigation stunt, but one that could have devastating consequences in the future.
Deborah Dicks Maxwell, President of the N.C. NAACP says, “In 2017, a federal court found that North Carolina legislators were targeting Black voters ‘with surgical precision’; and nearly a decade later we continue to see some of these same legislators deploying new tactics in their ongoing assault on voting rights– all while trying to conceal their bad actions from the public. While these relentless attacks are infuriating, they underscore the power of the people- and the fear that these legislative leaders have of that power. Of our power. We will not back down. We will not allow these elected officials to roll back the freedoms that people sacrificed their very lives to gain. We will continue to pursue every legal challenge to these discriminatory laws and encourage every eligible voter to make their voices heard at the polls this November.”
Kym Meyer, Litigation Director at SELC and lead attorney on the case says, “Leaders in the North Carolina legislature are so desperate to avoid public scrutiny that they changed policies to automatically delete legislative e-mails, upended the public records law to exempt the legislature from any disclosure, and now are attempting to pass constitutional amendments that will have no near-term impact, simply to try to get out of a case where discovery is about to begin and depositions taken.”
Kat Roblez, Senior Voting Rights Counsel & Litigation Manager at Forward Justice says, “These legislative leaders have shown a continued commitment to further entrench their own power instead of working to ensure North Carolinians have access to basic necessities like healthcare, childcare, and affordable housing. They know that further restricting voting access makes it even more difficult for those who are marginalized, who are most impacted by these harmful policies, to leverage one of their most powerful advocacy tools- their right to vote. Rather than listening to and being accountable to the people, these officials have repeatedly worked to seize power from them through multiple forms of disenfranchisement, and this is just their latest scheme. We cannot call that a democracy.”
Additional information: This case began in 2018, when the N.C. NAACP challenged two constitutional amendment ballot questions – one imposing a photo ID requirement to vote and one lowering the state income tax cap – on the grounds that the North Carolina legislature was only able to achieve the constitutionally required supermajority by relying on the racial gerrymander. In 2017, the districts were deemed not only unconstitutional, but also one of the largest racial gerrymanders ever encountered by a federal court. However, before remedial elections took place, the legislators rushed to use their unconstitutional power to place amendments on the ballot to change the state’s constitution. Without the illegal racial gerrymandering, the legislature could not have met the constitutionally-required threshold to propose any of these constitutional amendments.
In 2019, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled for the N.C. NAACP and declared the amendments void. That ruling was overturned in a two to one decision of the N.C. Court of Appeals, which brought the matter to the Supreme Court. In 2022, the NC Supreme Court ruled in favor of N.C. NAACP that racially gerrymandered legislatures do not have unlimited authority to change North Carolina’s constitution, and sent this case back to the trial court for additional fact-finding. Under that ruling the Tax Cap Amendment and the Photo Voter ID Amendment are currently void. On August 2, 2023, the trial court transferred this matter to a three-judge panel; and a panel of judges was assigned to this case on December 1, 2023. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court for further factual findings and to assess whether the two constitutional amendments in question are the types of amendments the racially gerrymandered legislature lacked the power to place on the ballot.
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