The Supreme Court declined to hear North Carolina's appeal of a ruling that found its legislature intended to discriminate against minorities through one of the toughest voter ID laws in the United States, NBC News reported.
The law required photo ID, eliminated the ability to register and vote the same day, reduced the period for early voting by a week and more. It was passed after the Supreme Court invalidated parts of the federal Voting Rights Act in 2013.
But a court of appeals found North Carolina's law targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision" in a blistering decision in July.
The Justice Department filed a brief urging the Supreme Court not to take up the case just one day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Trump's Justice Department didn't take a position on the case.