Election could shut door on years-old NC voter ID, tax cap lawsuit

Beyond last week’s North Carolina election headlines, two results could help end a seven-year legal battle.

It involves state constitutional amendments addressing photo voter identification and a cap on income tax rates.

Not the amendments voters just approved one week ago. With 60% of the vote, North Carolinians said the state constitution should match current state law in requiring photo ID for all voters, whether they cast ballots in person or by mail. On taxes, 62% agreed to lower an existing constitutional cap on income tax rates to 3.5%.

With those votes, it’s hard to see how the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, can continue pursuing a lawsuit challenging similar amendments approved eight years ago.

In 2018, more than 2 million people cast ballots favoring voter ID and a lower income tax cap. Some 55% of voters agreed the state’s governing document should mandate an ID requirement for in-person voting. Plus 57% of voters agreed to lower the income tax cap from 10% to 7%.

The NAACP challenged both amendments. The group argued in a lawsuit that voters never should have had the opportunity to cast those 2018 votes.

When the dispute began, courts had ruled that the General Assembly that placed the amendments on the ballot had been elected through racially gerrymandered maps. In the NAACP’s view, the gerrymandering rulings made the General Assembly an illegitimate governing body.

The suit did not target lawmakers’ votes for the state budget or dozens of other laws approved in 2017 and 2018. Nor did the NAACP target the other two amendments voters approved in 2018. Measures devoted to crime victims and hunting and fishing rights avoided the NAACP’s attack.

A Democratic Wake County Superior Court judge initially agreed with the NAACP’s legal arguments. He struck down the two targeted amendments in 2019. The North Carolina Court of Appeals later reversed that decision. Then the state Supreme Court, with a 4-3 Democratic majority, ruled in 2022 that it was possible to block an unconstitutionally gerrymandered legislature from proposing certain types of ballot amendments.

The high court did not strike down the 2018 voter ID and tax cap amendments. Instead, the Democratic majority sent the case back to the trial court level for more analysis.

The case known as NAACP v. Moore has seen significant developments in the last four years.

First, voters flipped the state Supreme Court in 2022 to a 5-2 Republican majority. The new majority upheld North Carolina’s voter ID law the following year. Justices rejected arguments that voter ID would have a negative impact on racial minorities.

Second, a federal trial court also upheld the 2018 voter ID law. US District Judge Loretta Biggs, who initially blocked voter ID for the 2020 election, issued an order this spring upholding the ID requirement. Biggs’ decision has been appealed, but there is no current federal restriction against voter ID.

Third, state and federal courts have ruled in favor of Republican legislators in recent lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s election maps. Courts will no longer consider lawsuits arguing that election maps are overly partisan. Courts also have rejected recent claims against the state’s maps on racial grounds.

Fourth, the General Assembly has continued to cut income tax rates. The state’s individual income tax rate will drop from 3.99% this year to 3.49%. Additional cuts will keep the rate below the newly enacted cap. A 2% corporate tax rate will drop to 1% in 2028 and go away completely in 2030 under current law.

A unanimous bipartisan three-judge trial court panel upheld the 2018 amendments in September 2025. The panel ruled that the NAACP “fails to meet its burden of proof of beyond a reasonable doubt” that either amendment was enacted with racially discriminatory intent or that either would have a “meaningful disparate impact along racial lines.”

The NAACP appealed. Appellate judges heard oral arguments on Oct. 28, less than a week before voters cast ballots on the new voter ID and tax cap amendments.

“If the current constitutional amendments that are on the ballot right now in this election were to pass, wouldn’t that render this moot?” asked Judge Donna Stroud.

The NAACP’s lawyer sidestepped the question. But it’s hard to square last week’s votes with a court ruling that would have a meaningful impact on the 2018 amendments.

After more than half a decade, a lawsuit that aimed to throw out millions of North Carolina votes favoring voter ID and income tax limits could be nearing its end.

Mitch Kokai is senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation.