Earlier today, the United State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit remanded and reversed the lower district’s court ruling that upheld North Carolina’s recent changes in a voting suppression law that’s ruffled feathers since 2013.

The law, another embarrassing divot in North Carolina’s civil rights track, eliminated some of the voting avenues and accommodations used by African-Americans. Among other things, the law shortened early-voting periods by a week, removed one of the two Sunday polling days and restricts the kind of ID accepted at the polls — specifically IDs used most commonly by black voters.

The day the law was signed, civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the League of Women Voters immediately filed suit, claiming the law had discriminatory intent and violated the Voting Rights Act, not to mention the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments of the Constitution. The district court in Winston-Salem upheld the law, stating that their research and review of evidence does not show discriminatory intent, so plaintiffs appealed to the Fourth Circuit.

Circuit judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote a grueling appeal that threw enough shade at Pat McCrory and the General Assembly to cover for another week as scorching in the Carolina sun as this one has been.

We’ve broken down some of the better lines in the 83-page document that we believe deserve more attention, or an “Amen.”

1. “But, for some of its findings, we must conclude that the district court fundamentally erred. 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.” Page 9.

In this modern take on a tired cliché, Motz basically says the district court was completely inept when it came to finding the big picture that is the voting law’s true effect. Agreed.
2. “We hold that the challenged provisions of SL 2013-381 [the voting suppression law] were enacted with racially discriminatory intent in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. We need not and do not reach Plaintiffs’ remaining claims.” Page 23.

So, we’re still in the basic findings here, stating that everyone who filed suit against the General Assembly and Gov. McCrory are totally right in every claim made. So right, in fact, that the court doesn’t even need to continue assessing the claims of North Carolina being racist AF because it’s so spot-on.

3. “The Court recognized that a facially neutral law, like the one at issue here, can be motivated by invidious racial discrimination. If discriminatorily motivated, such laws are just as abhorrent, and just as unconstitutional, as laws that expressly discriminate on the basis of race.” Page 24.

Literally the next page is another sick burn by Motz. Roughly translated from legal jargon, this passage means “just because you hide your racism doesn’t mean you’re better than a racist who’s outspoken.” Ohhh, get ‘em.

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4. “We recognize that elections have consequences, but winning an election does not empower anyone in any party to engage in purposeful racial discrimination.” Page 39.

We can’t help read this as anything but a subtweet at Donald Trump, to be honest.

5. “The State then elaborated on its justification, explaining that “[c]ounties with Sunday voting in 2014 were disproportionately black” and “disproportionately Democratic.” In response, SL 2013-381 did away with one of the two days of Sunday voting. Thus, in what comes as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to see in modern times, the State’s very justification for a challenged statute hinges explicitly on race …” Page 40.

Caught red-handed, motherfuckers., with the ever-elusive “smoking gun” found pointing at your foot.

6. “Indeed, neither this legislature — nor, as far as we can tell, any other legislature in the Country — has ever done so much, so fast, to restrict access to the franchise.” Page 44.

Read: General Assembly, you are the one of the most racist legislatures in our country during the modern era. Thanks for the bad rap.

7. “Instead, this sequence of events — the General Assembly’s eagerness to … rush through the legislative process the most restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim Crow — bespeaks a certain purpose.” Page 46.

It only took three days from its introduction on the floor for the bill to be signed by McCrory. Imagine how much progress the General Assembly could make with civil rights at that speed if they didn’t want to set North Carolina back about 60 years.


8. “The court concluded its analysis by remarking that these provisions simply eliminated a system ‘preferred’ by African Americans as ‘more convenient’ … Registration and voting tools may be a simple ‘preference’ for many white North Carolinians, but for many African Americans, they are a necessity.” Page 55.

Check your privilege at the door, please.

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9. “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.” Page 69.

Republican-controlled NCGA, you’re not sneaky! You basically laid out your hidden agenda for all of us to see.