Supreme Court to hear procedural dispute over North Carolina voter ID law

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a procedural dispute between North Carolina's Democratic attorney general and top Republican lawmakers regarding who can defend the state's voter ID law in court.

The case isn't regarding the lawfulness of the voter ID requirement, but rather which government entity can defend it against legal challenges, The Hill reported.

Top state Republican lawmakers who support the law want to defend its constitutionality, even though the state attorney general is already taking that position in both state and federal courts.

The legislators claim that they also have the right to defend the law for the state, which lower courts did not agree with, leading to their appeal to the Supreme Court, according to the news outlet.

The voter ID law was passed by the North Carolina state legislature in Dec. 2018 after overriding the veto of the Democratic governor. It requires in-person and absentee voters to present accepted forms of photo ID, with limited exceptions.

The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and many of its affiliates quickly challenged the law in the case Berger v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, which has yet to be scheduled for argument. They claim that the law will cause an increase in poll workers and make challening ballots easier, disproportionately impacting minority voters and violating their legal protections.