Been watching the news for too long – certain, rote MSM this goes with that phrases, repeated often enough, just get beaten into your consciousness and your brain fills in the blank as you type.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has overturned 2 of the previous court’s rulings in pretty momentous decisions and issued one.

I HAVE GREAT NEWS

❗️North Carolina’s Supreme Court reinstated voter ID❗️

Background: In 2018, NC voters approved a constitutional amendment for voter ID. The 4(D)-3(R) Court struck down the law.

In 2022, we flipped the Court to 5(R)-2(D).

This is why SC elections matter!

— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) April 28, 2023

Again for emphasis, voter ID was passed by the legislature after North Carolina citizens voted to include such a requirement in the state constitution.

…The General Assembly enacted the voter ID law, originally Senate Bill 824, just weeks after voters decided in November 2018 to place an ID requirement in the state constitution.

NC Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper has his mad on. The hyperbole about partisanship always cracks me up. Cooper was happy as a clam when the Dem heavy court ran amok over people (which they would wind up paying for).

Governor Cooper's statement on the rulings is that correcting the prior court's rulings means the current court "ignored the constitution."#ncpol #ncga https://t.co/RM6H9cZFwN

— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) April 28, 2023

It becomes a case of who is “ignoring the constitution” here. Voters obviously wanted it a part of the constitution, voting to do so.

In December of last year, the 4-3 majority Democrat (partisan maybe?) court found that the voter ID law unfairly targeted black citizens and the gerrymandering statute was also unconstitutional because it bolstered one party’s base which, of course, unfairly targeted blacks.

North Carolina lawmakers violated the constitutional rights of Black voters by targeting them with racially motivated voter ID rules — again — the N.C. Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The ruling found Republican leaders intentionally wrote the state’s 2018 voter ID law so that its requirements would harm Black voters more than white voters.

…Justice Anita Earls wrote that “even though the General Assembly had reason to know that African-American voters would be disproportionately affected by (the rules), it still chose to pass a law that required the specific IDs African-American voters disproportionately lack.”

…The other case deals with partisan gerrymandering, and underscores the ability of state courts to rule political districts unconstitutional for being gerrymandered to artificially boost the power and influence of one political party’s voters, at the expense of voters on the other side.

On voter ID, Earls wrote, the law was another example of North Carolina’s long history of white political leaders trying to stop Black people from voting. A Democrat who is biracial, Earls had a background in civil rights law before joining the court.

Not only was the law written “with the discriminatory intent to target African-American voters,” she wrote, but the only reason Republicans had enough votes to pass it into law at all was because of racially discriminatory gerrymandering — in districts that were later overturned as unconstitutional.

You should be getting the drift of the court here – according to Justice Earls, the underlying motive is easily identified for both the law and the districting – everything was done in the name of targeting blacks.

I’m not sure what those justices thought was going to happen because even as they made their ruling, they were on their way out. That November, NC voters had chosen a majority Republican court.

…Republicans have reclaimed a majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court with the election of Judge Richard Dietz to Seat 3 and Trey Allen to Seat 5.

Both seats were previously held by Democrats, allowing Republicans to take a 5-2 majority.

…Having a Republican majority in the N.C. Supreme Court opens the opportunity for the overturning of various decisions made along party lines, such as the N.C. Supreme Court’s order to allocate of hundreds of millions of dollars for public education in the Hoke County Board of Education v. North Carolina case.

The howls of the dissenting justices were for naught in the reversal, with the majority opinion pointing out that it was, in fact, no burden to either get an ID or cast a provisional ballot. Case closed.

…”Plaintiffs failed to produce any witness who could testify to the General Assembly’s alleged discriminatory intent or otherwise rebut the presumption of good faith,” Berger wrote. “The named plaintiffs can all obtain free identification cards that can be used for eleven years and, even if they fail to do so, can cast provisional ballots that will be counted if they comply with the forgiving requirements of S.B. 824.”

The redistricting/gerrymandering challenge was due to be heard by SCOTUS but will probably be dropped now that this new court has vacated the previous ruling. Especially in light of the language: much of the NC decision verbiage came straight from a previous SCOTUS case.

…[Chief Justice Paul] Newby pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause. In that case, the nation’s highest court decided that federal courts would no longer consider partisan gerrymandering cases.

“Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States reviewed similar claims under the Federal Constitution and determined that ‘excessive’ partisan gerrymandering claims involve nonjusticiable, political questions,” Newby wrote. “We find the Supreme Court’s analysis in Rucho insightful and persuasive. For all these reasons, we hold that partisan gerrymandering claims present a political question that is nonjusticiable under the North Carolina Constitution.”

BREAKING: NC Supreme Court rules on 5-2 conservative lines that "there is no judicially manageable standard by which to adjudicate partisan gerrymandering claims," strikes down prior liberal court's rulings on voting maps. #ncpol https://t.co/UCRuOTuQue

— Bryan Anderson (@BryanRAnderson) April 28, 2023

It’s not so much the thought of the racial injustice of it all that’s really bugging the crap out of liberals and NC Dems right now. It’s the fact that, since they’re no longer calling the shots and drawing their own whackdoodle maps, the Congressional landscape is looking rather Mordor-ish at the moment. Liberal tears, baby.

FOUR HOUSE SEATS

Cry more. https://t.co/dCzWENQgmW

— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) April 28, 2023

I don’t know – looks fair to me.

The other big ruling was concerning felons’ voting rights. A split trial decision (the law was unconstitutional and “discriminates against black residents” – sensing a theme?) that had been upheld in the appeals courts last fall allowed felons to register and vote in the November elections.
Not anymore.

…Plaintiffs in that case challenged the law restoring voting rights to N.C. felons. Activists hoped to open the door to voting by as many as 56,000 felons who had completed active prison time but had not completed their full sentences.

…Now the state’s highest court has overruled those lower courts.

“Our state constitution ties voting rights to the obligation that all citizens have to refrain from criminal misconduct,” wrote Justice Trey Allen, one of the court’s two newest members. “Specifically, it denies individuals with felony convictions the right to vote unless their citizenship rights are restored ‘in the manner prescribed by law.’ No party to this litigation disputes the validity of Article VI, Section 2(3) of the North Carolina Constitution.”

“This case is therefore not about whether disenfranchisement should be a consequence
of a felony conviction,” Allen added. “The state constitution says that it must be, and we are bound by that mandate.”

Lefties and Democrats across the country are roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth and rolling their terrible eyes at today’s decisions.

[CUE: sad trombone]

The only thing I haven’t seen yet is “existential threat to democracy” but I’m sure it’s coming. They haven’t worn it completely out as far as they’re concerned.

The people of North Carolina – the voters – should be pretty happy. This is proof your vote does count and there are still times you can claw your way back from the abyss if the people you vote for to do something have the backbone and integrity to see it through.

Pretty good day.