RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs upheld North Carolina's photo voter identification law on March 26, 2026. Biggs set aside arguments by civil rights groups that Republican lawmakers enacted the photo voter ID requirement with discriminatory intent against Black and Latino voters.

The state NAACP filed the lawsuit, arguing that the photo voter ID requirement violated the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act. Biggs presided over a non-jury trial in the case in spring 2024.

Republican legislative leaders passed the photo voter identification law in late 2018. Weeks before the law's passage, voters approved a constitutional amendment endorsing the photo voter identification requirement. The law has been implemented since the 2023 municipal elections.

"We can put to rest any doubt that our state's Voter I.D. law is constitutional," said Phil Berger, North Carolina state Senate leader, following the ruling.

At trial, the state NAACP alleged that Republican legislators passed the voter ID law to entrench their political power by discouraging individuals historically aligned with Democrats from voting. Lawyers defending the law argued that Republican lawmakers would not have passed one of the most permissive ID laws if they intended to entrench themselves in state politics.

Defending lawyers argued that the law is race-neutral and includes more categories of qualifying identification than the 2013 voter ID law that was struck down. Lawyers said the General Assembly had legitimate state interests in building voter confidence in elections and preventing voter fraud. Nationwide voter identity fraud is rare.

In her 134-page order, she said evidence suggested the burden to obtain photo IDs fell more heavily on Black and Hispanic voters. The judge wrote that a disparate number of racial minority voters would lack the required ID on Election Day, and as a result their votes would not count when elections are certified.

She said the state's history of race discrimination and voter suppression warrants finding that the law was enacted with discriminatory intent. The judge wrote that controlling case law requires assigning less weight to the law's historical background and giving deference to the presumption that lawmakers approved the law in good faith.

In 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the voter ID law in a separate lawsuit. After the state Supreme Court's majority shifted from Democratic to Republican, the justices revisited and upheld the photo ID law.

North Carolina's voter ID law offers free identification cards at all Division of Motor Vehicles offices and at county election offices statewide. Under the law, voters lacking photo ID at the polls can have their votes counted if they complete an exception form or present their ID to election officials before final tally certification.

No appeal decision has been made in the case. Nearly all results of the March 3, 2026 primary were certified on March 25, 2026.