Judge Strikes Down North Carolina Law Barring Felons From Voting

The law ‘was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters.’

A judge's gavel in a file photo. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A federal judge has struck down a nearly 150-year-old North Carolina law prohibiting felons from voting.

The law, enacted in 1877, had made it a new felony offense for “any person convicted of a crime which excludes the person from the right of suffrage, to vote at any primary or election without having been restored to the right of citizenship.”