A federal judge has upheld North Carolina’s voter ID law, reversing an earlier position and delivering a significant legal victory for Republican lawmakers after years of court battles.

Loretta Biggs, who was appointed by Barack Obama, ruled that the state’s 2018 voter identification requirement does not violate federal law, despite arguments from civil rights groups that it was enacted with discriminatory intent.

The decision marks a shift from Biggs’ earlier stance, when she had blocked the law in a preliminary ruling. In her latest opinion, however, she concluded that existing legal precedent required the court to defer to lawmakers and ultimately side with the defendants.

The case centered on whether the law unfairly targeted Black and Latino voters. While Biggs acknowledged evidence showing minority voters could be disproportionately affected, she determined that the plaintiffs failed to meet the high legal threshold needed to prove intentional discrimination under current standards.