Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 1 of 97 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 18-10151 D.C. Docket No. 2:15-cv-02193-LSC GREATER BIRMINGHAM MINISTRIES, ALABAMA STATE CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, GIOVANA AMBROSIO, ELIZABETH WARE, SHAMEKA HARRIS, Plaintiffs - Appellants, versus SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE STATE OF ALABAMA, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (July 21, 2020) Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 2 of 97 Before BRANCH and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges, and GAYLES, * District Judge. BRANCH, Circuit Judge: At the end of 2015, advocacy groups and individual Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit against Alabama’s Secretary of State, John Merrill, challenging Alabama’s 2011 Photo Voter Identification Law (hereinafter, the “voter ID law”), passed by the Alabama legislature as House Bill 19 and codified at Ala. Code § 17-9-30. The voter ID law took effect in June 2014 and requires all Alabama voters to present a photo ID when casting in-person or absentee votes. Plaintiffs allege the law has a racially discriminatory purpose and effect that violates the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act (the “VRA”). Specifically, Plaintiffs claim the law violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution; Section 2 of the VRA, 52 U.S.C. § 10301; and Section 201 of the VRA, 52 U.S.C. § 10501. Based on these allegations, Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the enforcement of Alabama’s voter ID Law. Secretary Merrill denies that the law is discriminatory, arguing that Alabama accepts so many types of acceptable IDs that most Alabamians already possess photo ID and voters who do not have one can obtain one easily. * Honorable Darrin P. Gayles, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, sitting by designation. 2 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 3 of 97 Secretary Merrill filed a motion for summary judgment on all counts, while Plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment on one claim and one issue. 1 The district court granted Secretary Merrill’s motion and Plaintiffs-Appellants timely appealed. Because Plaintiffs have failed to identify any genuine disputes of material facts and because no reasonable factfinder could find, based on the evidence presented, that Alabama’s voter ID law is discriminatory, we affirm the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of the Secretary of State for the State of Alabama. I. BACKGROUND This case was filed by Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, along with Giovana Ambrosio, Shameka Harris, Debra Silvers, and Elizabeth Ware (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) against John Merrill, the Secretary of State for the State of Alabama. In summarizing the facts of this case, we pull directly from—and oftentimes quote verbatim—the “Undisputed Material Facts” 1 Plaintiffs requested summary judgment on their Section 201 claim. Plaintiffs also argued that the “facts show that there is a statistically significant racial disparity” between the ID ...
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