FEDERAL JUDGE REJECTS
NCNAACP ARGUMENT,
UPHOLDS VOTER ID
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In a 134-page ruling, a federal judge normally sympathetic to the NC NAACP’s arguments against the use of voter photo ID in North Carolina elections, last week rejected the civil rights organization’s arguments in a case that has been before the federal court for several years.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, originally appointed to the bench by Pres. Barack Obama, ruled last week that her position that voter ID has a disparate impact on African-Americans hasn’t changed, but the law governing it has.
“This case is not about whether North Carolina law will require that voters show photo identification when they go to the polls,” Judge Biggs wrote. “That question was settled on November 6, 2018, when approximately 55% of North Carolina’s registered voters enshrined a photo voter identification requirement in the State Constitution.”
Saying that “ …we must accept the will of the majority of voters on this issue unless or until the people of North Carolina decide otherwise, Biggs continued, “Instead, the central issue before this Court is whether Plaintiffs have shown that the North Carolina General Assembly, when designing the constitutional amendment’s implementing legislation, North Carolina Senate Bill 824 (hereinafter ‘S.B. 824’), violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” the order continued. “In making this determination, the Court must follow the law of the United States Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit.”
Judge Biggs originally held a trial on the voter ID law two years ago in May 2024. But she noted that while the lawsuit aiming to stop the voter ID law was filed seven years ago, much has changed since then.
“Since that time, the law of the United States Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals related to the issues presented by the instant case have undergone, and continue to undergo, dramatic change. Consequently, this Court, having given careful consideration to the preliminary injunction record, the limited evidence presented at trial, and the arguments of counsel, concludes that it is compelled by controlling case law to render Judgment in favor of the Defendants on both Plaintiffs’ Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment claim and Plaintiffs’ § 2 claim under the Voting Rights Act.”
The NC NAACP has not commented on Judge Biggs’ ruling, but a jubilant Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, who recently lost in his re-election bid during the Republican primary and last week decided not to further challenge the results,
“Finally. After seven years, we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional,” Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a statement. “This is a monumental win for the citizens of North Carolina and election integrity efforts.”
In another federal court ruling, a judge has rejected challenges to changes to North Carolina law governing same-day voter registration.
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WHITE RALEIGH TEEN COULD
GET FIVE YEARS IN ALLEGED
MINORITIES MURDER PLOT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A white Raleigh teenager could face five years in federal prison for allegedly threatening on Instagram to kill African-American and Hispanic people in a mass shooting, federal authorities say.
Eric Constantine Byrd, 19, made his first appearance in federal court last week where he sat handcuffed in his street clothes. Byrd is charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce to injure another person.
The FBI Raleigh Joint Terrorism Task Force was alerted by officials in Washington, DC after Meta forwarded several of Byrd’s threatening posts to them.
That charge results from threats Byrd allegedly made online between Feb. 9th and March 6th using the hashtag signal #active to indicate his intention to become an active shooter. Prosecutors say during that time, Byrd posted his white supremacist/neoNazi intentions to murder blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals and others and become a well-known mass shooter.
“Planning on getting #active on my local [slur against Black people] and [slur against Hispanic people],” one post reads. “I’m just trying to find the time to do it which idk when yet [shrugging emoji]. I’m not a p—y I will record it! #NOLIVESMATTER.”
Byrd also promoted the prospect of killing himself after a racial mass shooting, if not killed by law enforcement. Several of the young white supremacist’s posts feature pictures of him holding guns, according to court documents.
Reportedly, when the FBI began investigating Byrd and went to his home in Raleigh, the teen’s parents admitted that their son, who lived with them, “had issues.” Subsequent to that, according to a criminal complaint, his parents revealed that he did purchase a firearm, but didn’t “have access to it.”
“After some hesitation, Byrd’s mother escorted an FBI [agent] to an upstairs bedroom,” the complaint continues. “The firearm was located in a blue box in the closet of what was later determined to be Byrd’s bedroom.”
Raleigh police had to be called to the home in January because of an alleged incident after Byrd “lost his mind.”
“Byrd admitted that if he had ammunition for his firearm during the aforementioned January 2026 incident with his parents, he would have ‘probably’ killed them,” the complaint states. It was later determined in a search of the Raleigh teen’s emails that he had purchased an AK-47 rifle in December (though the FBI believes he may have sold it), along with 1,000 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
Byrd also admitted in online posts that he enjoyed watching other people suffer.
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