Attacking North Carolina's new voter ID law as the "harshest voter suppression law in the nation," the ACLU's North Carolina chapter saluted the U.S. Justice Department for filing a lawsuit on Sept. 30 challenging the law. Like Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., the ACLU considers minorities haplessly incompetent at the monumental task of acquiring IDs. The Justice Department's lawsuit claims that minority voters are less likely to have common photo IDs and that shortening the early voting period would also disproportionately affect minorities. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed the bill in August, defended the new law, noting that President Obama had presented a photo ID when voting in Chicago in 2012. "I believe if showing a voter ID is good enough and fair enough for our own president in Illinois, it's good enough for the people in North Carolina," McCrory said. "I think it is obviously influenced by national politics since the Justice Department ignores similar laws in...(Read Full Post)