GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — A federal judge has issued a judgment about a North Carolina voting law that the plaintiffs and critics deemed discriminatory.

On Monday, a federal court ruled that district attorneys in North Carolina cannot enforce a law that would allow people with prior felony convictions to be prosecuted on felony charges if they unknowingly or mistakenly cast a ballot without regaining their eligibility.

U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs ruled in a summary judgment that the law violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and enjoined the law from being enforced in any prosecutions.

“Attorneys from Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, representing the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC challenged a law originally enacted in 1877 with the explicit intent to disenfranchise Black voters and which has remained substantially unchanged ever since,” the SCSJ wrote in a release.

This law made it a felony for a citizen to vote while on parole, probation or post-release supervision for a felony conviction, even if they were led to believe they were eligible, and violating the law came with a punishment of up to two years in prison.

“For more than 145 years, the voices of North Carolinians with felony convictions, many Black North Carolinians, were chilled by the selective and arbitrary enforcement of the law,” they wrote.

Judge Biggs, in her judgment, wrote, “Defendants, in an extraordinary and telling concession, ‘do not contest that the historical background from the original enactments of 1877 and 1899 are indefensible. Defendants further do not contest that the law currently impacts African-Americans at a higher rate than it does other citizens.'”

She ultimately ruled that the law was vague, which enabled North Carolina district attorneys to “pursue their personal predilections” in deciding on enforcement.

“The Fourth Circuit also found that when a law is enacted with discriminatory intent, as
opposed to only having a discriminatory effect, it inflicts ‘a broader injury,’ and thus the
remedy must entirely cleanse the taint,” Biggs wrote in her judgment.

Pat McCoy, the executive director of Action NC, wrote in a statement that they were “ecstatic” at the ruling, saying, “We will now be able to help more people become civically engaged without fear of prosecution for innocent mistakes. Democracy truly won today!”

You can read Judge Biggs’ ruling in full here.