Appeals Court: GOP Lawmakers Can't Join NC Voter ID Lawsuit

A federal appeals court has ruled a judge didn’t step over the line when she refused to let North Carolina’s legislative leaders formally defend the state’s photo identification voting law with other state government attorneys. A majority of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld decisions by District Judge Loretta Biggs preventing House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger from becoming defendants in the lawsuit filed by the NAACP. This lawsuit is slated to go trial early next year. The arguments centered around whether lawyers from Attorney General Josh Stein’s office could adequately defend the 2018 law.