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2 - SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2017 - THE CAROLINA TIMES Supreme Court’s Roberts: ‘Uncertainty’ sinks voter ID appeal By Gary D. Robertson and Mark Sherman RALEIGH (AP) - The Supreme Court shut the door May 15 on North Carolina Re publicans’ effort to revive a state law that mandated voter identification and scaled back early voting, provisions that a lower court said improperly targeted minority voters. The justices left in place last summer’s ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap peals striking down the law’s photo ID requirement to vote in person, which the court said targeted African-Americans “with almost surgical precision.” The measure, approved in 2013 by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature, also reduced the number of early voting days from 17 to 10 and prohibited same-day reg istration during the early voting period. Supporters said the measure was necessary to crack down on voter fraud, but opponents said the changes discourage voting by black and Hispanic residents, who use early voting or same-day registration more than white voters and are more likely to lack photo ID. The North Carolina dispute is similar to a court fight over Texas’ voter ID law, which also was struck down as racially discriminatory. The Texas case is making its way through the lower courts and could be the high court’s next opportunity to weigh in. Chief Justice John Roberts cautioned May 15 in the two-page order that the rejec tion of the appeal is not a comment on the court’s view about the substance of the law. Thirty-two states already have some kind of voter ID law in force, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That word of caution seemed to hearten North Carolina’s Republican leaders, who pledged to take another crack at passing a voter ID requirement. State House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement that “Republican legislators will continue fighting to protect the integrity of our elec tions by implementing the commonsense requirement to show a photo ID when we vote.” Roberts wrote the political situation created uncertainty over who is authorized to seek review of the lower court ruling. The appeal was first filed when Republican Pat McCrory was governor; Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein The Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, said it’s time for Republicans to stop proposing new restrictions. “We urge the General Assembly to finally accept that racially discriminatory laws have no place in our democracy, and certainly not when it comes to the sacred right to vote,” Barber said. Republicans in North Carolina and Texas moved to enact new voting measures after the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act that had required them to get advance approval before changing laws dealing with elec tions. Voters, civil rights groups and the Obama administration quickly filed lawsuits challenging the new laws. Shortly before President Donald Trump took office in January, the Justice Depart ment urged the Supreme Court to reject the North Carolina appeal. When the law passed in July 2013, North Carolina Republicans said that requiring voter ID will increase the integrity of elections. But the 4th U.S. Circuit said last July that the state provided no evidence of the kind of in-person voter fraud the ID mandate would address. The Richmond, Virginia-based court said the law was enacted with intentional bias against black voters. The law had been amended in 2015 to include a method for people unable to get a photo ID to still vote. Following the appellate ruling, the state asked the high court to allow the challenged provisions to remain in effect in November’s election. The justices rejected the request by virtue of a 4-4 tie on most of the challenged provisions, with the four more conserva tive justices supporting the state’s bid. The State Board of Elections reported last month that about 500 ineligible voters cast ballots out of the 4.8 million recorded in North Carolina during the November election. Most of the number involved felons unable to vote because they had not completed their sentences. Sherman reported from Washington. then tried to withdraw it. The high court decision drew praise from Democrats and plaintiffs in the case. Cooper said in a statement that Monday’s (May 15) “announcement is good news for North Carolina voters. We need to be making it easier to vote, not harder.” Concerned about How to Pay for College? AG Stein Launches Tool to Help. RALEIGH - Attorney General Josh Stein announced a new tool on his website to provide information for students and their families about how to safely pay for college. The site is www.ncdoj .gov/PayingForCollege. “As high schools, colleges and universities celebrate graduations all across North Carolina, I want to be sure those students and their families have the resources they need to make smart decisions about how they pay for college or pay off loans,” said Attor ney General Stein. “Higher education is a great investment, but an expensive one. About 60 percent of North Caro lina students take out loans. Learning about your options, how to read the fine print and how much you’ll actu ally have to pay can make that process a lot smoother.” This website feature - with sec tions for students in high school who are applying for college, current col lege students and graduates who are now paying off their loans - includes information and tips for each of those stages. “As your Attorney General, I can’t change the price of college or how we finance higher education,” said Attor ney General Stein. “But I can and will fight for you if you’re cheated, unfair ly targeted or misled. And I will work to make sure you have the information you need to make a smart financial de cision about your college investment.” Study finds children with ADHD have questions for their doctor but don’t ask them Chapel Hill — Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder want to ask their physicians about their condition and medica tions but often don’t, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study could help doctors and par ents leverage this interest to help children bet ter manage their ADHD. “We have found that there has been very little research into how providers, parents and youth communicate about ADHD and ADHD medications,” said Betsy Sleath, the lead au thor of the study and the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshel- man School of Pharmacy. “What we do know is that kids often aren’t part of the conversa tion when their parents and doctors are talking ADHD. We wanted to know how the kids felt about that.” Sleath’s team recruited 48 boys and 22 girls ranging in age from 7 to 17 years at two private pediatric practices in North Carolina who had been diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medicine, and examined how chil dren with ADHD perceive communication with their pediatric care providers, whether they say they take their ADHD medications correctly and where they prefer to learn about their condition. Smoothies Grounded In Goodness
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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