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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 31
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Appeals court: North Carolina voter ID law
unconstitutional; Republicans Say They Will Appeal
By Emery P. Dalesio and Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled that a North Caro
lina law illegally targeted minorities with tougher ballot access rules,
such as requiring photo identification to vote, adding a new partisan
flashpoint in a swing state with a raft of hotly contested elections.
The ruling Friday by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declared
that the 2013 law violated the Constitution and the federal Voting
Rights Act by targeting black voters “with almost surgical precision.”
It marks the third ruling in less than two weeks against voter ID laws
after court decisions regarding Texas and Wisconsin.
The law, passed two years after Republicans took control of the
state legislature for the first time in a century, sought to entrench GOP
politicians in power, the opinion by a three-judge panel of the court
stated.
“It did so by targeting voters who, based on race, were unlikely to
vote for the majority party. Even if done for partisan ends, that consti
tuted racial discrimination,” said the judges. The decision overturned
a federal district judge’s April ruling that didn’t find proof the law
made it harder for minority voters to cast ballots.
In reversing earlier election-law changes by Democrats to make
voting easier, the GOP-led legislature crossed a constitutional line by
restricting minority voting, the court said.
“The record thus makes obvious that the 'problem’ the majority
in the General Assembly sought to remedy was emerging support
for the minority party. Identifying and restricting the ways African
Americans vote was an easy and effective way to do so,” the court
stated. “Winning an election does not empower anyone in any party
to engage in purposeful racial discrimination.”
The decision was lauded by Democrats, including presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton, as a victory for democracy and decried by
Republicans as an effort to tilt the balance in elections this fall that
could be won by either party.
North Carolina’s presidential race could be competitive, as Barack
Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008 but lost to Mitt Romney
four years later. The state that also has closely contested races for
U.S. Senate and governor.
GOP legislative leaders said they would appeal the case to the
U.S. Supreme Court. They blasted the ruling as a partisan and em
phasized the law was intended to make voter fraud more difficult.
“Photo IDs are required to purchase Sudafed, cash a check, board
an airplane or enter a federal court room. Yet, three Democratic judg
es are undermining the integrity of our elections while also maligning
our state,” said Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican seeking re-election.
However, it’s unlikely that the evenly divided and short-handed
Supreme Court would take the case or block Friday’s ruling from
governing elections this November, said election-law experts Ned
Foley of Ohio State University and Richard Hasen of the University
of California at Irvine. The ruling also could boost the votes at play
this fall, Hasen said.
“Anytime you take away restrictions, you make it possible for
more people to vote. I think we will see more people voting than if
these restrictions were still in place,” he said. “I think this is a hugely
important decision.”
The law’s opponents say the ruling should increase participation
by black and Hispanic voters.
The photo ID requirement, which took effect with this year’s pri
mary elections in March, required people casting ballots in person to
show one of six qualifying IDs. Voters facing “reasonable impedi
ments” could fill out a form and cast a provisional ballot.
North Carolina legislators imposed the photo ID requirement, cur
tailed early voting and eliminated same-day registration and voters’
ability to cast out-of-precinct provisional ballots in their home coun
ties.
Dale Hicks said he couldn’t vote in 2014 after the new law elimi
nated same-day registration. The newly discharged Marine learned
he couldn’t cast a ballot after moving to the Raleigh area a few
months earlier.
“I felt disenfranchised, like I was being taken advantage of,” said
Hicks, a 40-year-old black man. “I heard some things going on, but
I didn’t think I’d be affected. I’ve been an American citizen all my
life.”
Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Caro
lina; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh; and Mark Sherman in Washing
ton contributed to this report.
Shaw Univerdsity
announces end to
salary reduction
RALEIGH (AP) - Shaw University says it is ending a
three-year salary reduction program, citing cost-cutting
measures and gains in corporate and private giving as the
reason for the move.
In a letter to faculty and staff, Shaw President Tashni
Dubroy credited employees for their leadership and com
mitment following changes to federal student aid loan
and grant programs in 2011, which she said dramatically
decreased affordability and enrollment for hundreds of
students at the predominantly black school in Raleigh
over a two-year period.
Dubroy said the time is right to restore regular wage
schedules and to set a standard for future investment in
Shaw’s research and teaching capacity.
The school said employees affected by the salary re
duction initiative will see restored earning levels begin
ning in September.
The Rev. Dr. William Barber, right, arrives for the start of a voting rights trial in
federal court in Winston-Salem, on Mon., July 13, challenging voting law includ
ing voter ID, introduced by North Carolina Legislative Republicans. (AP Photo by
DAvid Rofle/Winston-Salem Journal).
Judge mulling LGBT law has
GOP and big-business pedigree
By Jonathan Drew
RALEIGH (AP) - The fate of the North Carolina law governing transgender restroom access rests in
the hands of ajudge appointed by President George W. Bush who recently sided with the state’s Republi
can leaders by upholding a voter ID law - but just had that decision overturned by a federal appeals court.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder, a former corporate lawyer known for representing the R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company, scheduled oral arguments for Monday on whether the state can require
transgender people to use restrooms in many public buildings that match their birth certificates, rather
than their gender identities.
The U.S. Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union are seeking preliminary injunc
tions to block the restroom provision of the law, known as House Bill 2, which also excludes gender
identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections. Defending HB2 are Re
publican Gov. Pat McCrory, state legislative leaders and a citizens’ group. Schroeder has scheduled a
trial for November.
“With regard to judicial philosophy, he’s pretty right-wing,” said Norman Smith, a longtime Winston-
Salem attorney. Smith suspects Schroeder would “feel comfortable in wanting to uphold HB2,” even
though he’s considered more moderate than some other Republican-appointed judges in the state.
“When he was put in the court by Bush, there was a sigh of relief from the plaintiffs’ bar” that the
president didn’t pick someone more conservative, Smith recalled. Since then, Schroeder has earned a
reputation as a meticulous legal thinker who holds lawyers to high standards.
“He’s very careful and polite and doesn’t show his hand very much. So he’s a pleasant person to ap
pear in front of,” said Smith.
As he decides whether HB2 violates federal civil rights laws, Schroeder must account for a federal
appeals court ruling favoring a transgender Virginia teen who has sought access to boys’ bathrooms at his
high school, but the judge still has leeway.
Studies show that Republican appointees tend to rule more conservatively than Democratic appoin
tees, though the difference is so slight that political affiliations don’t help predicting a particular case’s
outcome. That said, party principles can guide jurists deciding less settled questions, Brookings Institu
tion scholar Russell Wheeler said.
“Federal judges do take their role seriously, and their role is to apply the law as it should be applied.
But cases come along in which the law is not clear and they have to turn to something else, and that ex
plains these slight differences,” Wheeler said.
Schroeder’s background representing large corporations could make him sympathetic to the views of
the dozens of businesses that signed onto an amicus brief urging him halt the bathroom-access provision,
Wheeler said.
As a federal judge in North Carolina, he’s increasingly being asked to decide whether the state’s
Republican-led legislature has gone too far.
Schroeder upheld the state’s voter ID law in April, rejecting arguments by the Justice Department and
the NAACR In a nearly 500-page ruling, he acknowledged that black residents faced discrimination but
found that plaintiffs failed to show those issues had “materially adverse effects” on their ability to vote.
On July 29, a three-judge panel on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia criticized Schroeder’s
reasoning and overturned his decision in a sharply worded opinion.
“In holding that the legislature did not enact the challenged provisions with discriminatory intent,
the court seems to have missed the forest in carefully surveying the many trees,” the panel wrote in its
opinion.
Last summer, Schroeder also ruled that the Justice Department failed to prove allegations that a North
Carolina sheriff ordered deputies to target Hispanic residents in violation of their civil rights. And he’s
on a three-judge panel that has yet to rule on a challenge to Republican-drawn state legislative districts.
“He writes fairly lengthy opinions and he really gets into detail and wants to understand the case and
what’s going on,” said Raleigh attorney S. Chuck Kitchen, who defended the Alamance County sheriff.
Schroeder declined an interview request.
Jordan gives $2M; I
ooks to build trust
between blacks, cops
By Steve Reed
CHARLOTTE (AP) - Mi
chael Jordan finally spoke out
on july 25 about racial tensions
in America in hopes of easing
conflicts between blacks and law
enforcement.
The NBA great and Charlotte
Hornets owner announced he is
giving $1 million to the Institute
for Community-Police Relations
and another $1 million to the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The aim is to help build trust fol
lowing several shootings around
the country.
“As a proud American, a fa
ther who lost his own dad in a
senseless act of violence, and a
black man, I have been deeply
troubled by the deaths of Afri
can-Americans at the hands of
law enforcement and angered
by the cowardly and hateful tar
geting and killing of police offi
cers,” Jordan said in a statement.
“I grieve with the families who
have lost loved ones, as I know
their pain all too well.”
Jordan’s father was killed
in 1993 in a botched carjack
ing in North Carolina. Daniel
Green and his friend Larry De-
mery were convicted of killing
56-year-old James Jordan along
U.S. 74 and dumping his body in
South Carolina. Both were sen
tenced to life in prison.
The high-profile Jordan has
been notoriously silent over the
years when it comes to his opin
ions on politics or social justice
issues, which has drawn some
criticism.
But he said July 25 he “can no
longer stay silent” on the issue.
“I was raised by parents who
taught me to love and respect
people regardless of their race
or background, so I am saddened
and frustrated by the divisive
rhetoric and racial tensions that
seem to be getting worse as of
late,” Jordan said in the state
ment. “I know this country is
better than that. ... We need to
find solutions that ensure people
of color receive fair and equal
treatment AND that police offi
cers - who put their lives on the
line every day to protect us all -
are respected and supported.”
Spike Lee tweeted: “DO NOT
SLEEEP ON MJ.” NBA player
Jared Dudley tweeted: “There u
go MJ.”
Jordan won six NBA champi
onships with the Chicago Bulls
and became one of the most
popular and respected basketball
players in the world.
After retiring, he became the
majority owner of the Hornets in
2010.
“Over the past three decades I
have seen up close the dedication
of the law enforcement officers
who protect me and my family,”
Jordan said. “I have the great
est respect for their sacrifice and
service. I also recognize that for
many people of color their ex
periences with law enforcement
have been different than mine. I
have decided to speak out in the
hope that we can come togeth
er as Americans, and through
peaceful dialogue and education,
achieve constructive change.”
Jordan said he chose the In
stitute for Community-Police
Relations because its policy and
oversight work is focused on
building trust and promoting best
practices in community policing.
He gave to the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund, the nation’s old
est civil rights law organization,
to support its work in support of
reforms aimed at building trust
and respect between communi
ties and law enforcement.