Supreme Court clears New Hampshire to bar student IDs as a backup form of voter identification in the midterm elections

What happened

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for New Hampshire to fully ban student IDs as a way to prove identity when voting in the midterm elections, according to ABC News and CBS News. The justices granted an emergency appeal backed by Republicans and blocked the use of student IDs as a backup method of identification.

CBS News reported that the decision was unsigned and ran one paragraph. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent, both outlets reported.

How the case reached the high court

A new state law and follow-up guidance

New Hampshire passed a law this year that removed student IDs from the list of expressly accepted forms of identification for getting a ballot, according to ABC News. The secretary of state then issued guidance that barred student IDs as a backup way for voters to prove who they are.

A lower court split the difference

In early October, a judge left the law itself in place but blocked the secretary of state's guidance, ABC News and CBS News reported. That order prompted the appeal to the Supreme Court. The Republican National Committee weighed in to support the state.

The court's reasoning

The Purcell principle

The court relied on what CBS News described as the longstanding "Purcell principle," the idea that judges should not change voting rules too close to Election Day. According to CBS News, the order quoted a 2020 decision stating that the court "has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election."

The justices wrote that the lower court "did not point to anything that would justify deviating" from that principle, CBS News reported. ABC News also reported that the court cited the principle in granting the appeal.

Jackson's dissent

Jackson argued that Purcell did not necessarily apply here, CBS News reported. Her reasoning was that the lower court's order left the state's election rule untouched. A case like that, she wrote, "does not necessarily fall within the ambit of Purcell."

Reaction from New Hampshire officials

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, a Republican, praised the ruling in a statement, according to CBS News. He wrote that "New Hampshire has a responsibility to protect the integrity of its elections and ensure that election laws are applied as written."

Formella also called the decision "an important victory for our efforts to defend those laws," CBS News reported. He said it would help keep last-minute court orders from creating uncertainty for voters and election officials.

Why the timing matters

The ruling comes less than two weeks before New Hampshire voters cast ballots in a closely contested U.S. Senate race, according to both outlets. Under the decision, student IDs cannot be used as a backup form of identification during the midterm elections.

The case turned less on the state law itself, which the lower court left alone, than on whether a federal judge could block the secretary of state's guidance this close to an election. Readers following voting rules can find more in our elections coverage and other national stories in our Nation section.

What to watch next

• New Hampshire voters cast ballots in a closely contested U.S. Senate race less than two weeks after the ruling, according to ABC News and CBS News.
• Student IDs will be blocked as a backup form of voter identification in New Hampshire during the midterm elections under the Supreme Court's order.
• The state law removing student IDs as an expressly accepted form of identification remains in place, as a judge left it untouched in early October.