Read a PDF of our statement here.
LDF Files Response to Alabama’s Motion for Summary Judgment in Alabama Photo Voter ID Law Case
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has filed a response to Alabama’s motion for summary judgment in Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Merrill—the State’s latest attempt to dismiss LDF’s challenge to its photo voter ID law. Our response to the State’s motion contends that there is substantial evidence that the state legislature intentionally discriminated against Black and Latino voters by enacting the law, as well as other unresolved factual issues that remain, which need to be decided at trial. Among those issues is whether the law disproportionately burdens voters of color.
In 2014, Alabama’s House Bill 19 – the state’s photo ID law – went into effect, requiring voters to obtain a valid, government-issued photo ID to vote in-person or by absentee ballot. LDF’s lawsuit maintains that the Alabama legislature intentionally discriminated against Black and Latino voters when it passed the voter ID law in 2011, and that it indeed has had a racially discriminatory effect on voters of color, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
All experts in the case agree that Black and Latino people are overrepresented among the tens of thousands of Alabamans who are without the type of photo ID necessary for voting. LDF’s expert found that Black voters are 1.78 times more likely, and Latino voters are 1.67 times more likely, than white voters to lack a proper photo ID.
LDF filed the response brief together with law firms Covington & Burling LLP and McGuire & Associates.
Read our full response to Alabama’s motion for summary judgment here.
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has filed a response to Alabama’s motion for summary judgment in Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Merrill—the State’s latest attempt to dismiss LDF’s challenge to its photo voter ID law. Our response to the State’s motion contends that there is substantial evidence that the state legislature intentionally discriminated against Black and Latino voters by enacting the law, as well as other unresolved factual issues that remain, which need to be decided at trial. Among those issues is whether the law disproportionately burdens voters of color.
In 2014, Alabama’s House Bill 19 – the state’s photo ID law – went into effect, requiring voters to obtain a valid, government-issued photo ID to vote in-person or by absentee ballot. LDF’s lawsuit maintains that the Alabama legislature intentionally discriminated against Black and Latino voters when it passed the voter ID law in 2011, and that it indeed has had a racially discriminatory effect on voters of color, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
All experts in the case agree that Black and Latino people are overrepresented among the tens of thousands of Alabamans who are without the type of photo ID necessary for voting. LDF’s expert found that Black voters are 1.78 times more likely, and Latino voters are 1.67 times more likely, than white voters to lack a proper photo ID.
LDF filed the response brief together with law firms Covington & Burling LLP and McGuire & Associates.
Read our full response to Alabama’s motion for summary judgment here.