Southern Coalition for Social Justice to Host Press Briefing Ahead Federal Hearing Involving Racially Discriminatory Voting Law

Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) and Simpson Thacher, representing the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, filed a motion for summary judgment in June asking a federal court in the Middle District of North Carolina to declare the law unconstitutional under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution because it is both intentionally discriminatory and unconstitutionally vague.

The law, North Carolina General Statute § 163-275(5), or the “Strict Liability Voting Law,” makes it a felony for a North Carolinian to vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision for a felony conviction, even if they mistakenly believe, or are told in error by election workers or their parole officers, that they are eligible to vote. It was originally enacted in 1877 with the explicit intent to disenfranchise Black voters, and reenacted in 1899 as part of a broader legislative attempt during the Jim Crow era to suppress the Black vote, and continues to have a discriminatory impact on Black voters today. The law’s key features, including the lack of an intent requirement, have remained unchanged in the decades since.