Supreme Court permits New Hampshire to bar student IDs at polling places

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared New Hampshire to completely prohibit the use of student identification cards for voting in the upcoming midterm elections, granting an emergency request brought forward with Republican support.

The order from the high court blocks voters from presenting student IDs even as a secondary, fallback means of establishing their identity at the polls. Earlier this year, state lawmakers enacted legislation removing student cards from the list of explicitly permitted voter identification documents. Following that measure, the New Hampshire secretary of state issued administrative guidance specifying that the cards could also not serve as a backup proof of identity.

A lower court judge had previously allowed the statutory change to stand while temporarily halting the secretary of state's supplemental guidance in early October. That preliminary halt led state officials, backed by the Republican National Committee, to petition the nation's highest court for emergency intervention.

In an unsigned, single-paragraph ruling, the justices relied on the Purcell principle, a legal doctrine cautioning federal judges against modifying voting procedures close to an election date. Citing a precedent from 2020, the court reiterated that lower tribunals should generally avoid altering election rules on the verge of balloting. The majority concluded that the lower court had failed to present any rationale that would warrant departing from that doctrine.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood as the lone member of the court to issue a public dissent. Jackson questioned whether the standard should govern this dispute, pointing out that the lower court's decision had preserved the underlying statute itself. She wrote that a directive leaving the legislative rule intact does not clearly fall under the doctrine's aim of preventing federal courts from revising rules at the eleventh hour.

State officials welcomed the high court's action. Republican Attorney General John Formella described the outcome as a significant win for the state, stating that New Hampshire bears a duty to safeguard election integrity and enforce statutory requirements as drafted. Formella added that the decision helps prevent late judicial rulings from causing confusion among both voters and local election administrators.

The ruling arrives less than two weeks before election day, as New Hampshire prepares for voting that features a tightly contested race for the U.S. Senate.