The US Supreme Court has allowed New Hampshire to enforce restrictions that keep voters from using student IDs as backup identification when requesting ballots.
The unsigned order, issued ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, overturned a lower court ruling that had let election officials weigh student IDs alongside other identity evidence.
The decision favors New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, and the Republican National Committee, which backed the state's emergency appeal.
It could shape voting procedures in a closely watched Senate contest between Republican former Sen. John E.
Sununu and Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
The two are competing for the seat held by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Purcell Principle Guides the Order
The justices did not disclose the vote count.
Their order rested on the Purcell principle, which cautions federal courts against changing election procedures shortly before voting begins.
The court said the lower court had not established sufficient grounds to depart from that precedent.
"Here, the District Court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle," the Supreme Court said in its order.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, arguing that the lower court's intervention should remain in place so voters receive accurate information about election procedures.
"I would not disturb a clearly justifiable federal court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a State's electoral processes," Jackson wrote.
The dispute centers on a state law enacted in April that removed student IDs from the list of primary identification documents accepted when voters request ballots.
Another provision of New Hampshire law allows election officials to consider alternative evidence when determining whether a person is who they claim to be.
Voters may present unofficial identification or other evidence that reasonably establishes their identity.
The legal fight arose over whether student IDs could be considered under that provision even though they could no longer independently satisfy the primary identification requirement.
Coalition for Open Democracy, a nonprofit voting rights organization, challenged the state's interpretation, arguing that excluding student IDs from the alternative verification process unlawfully burdened voting rights and discriminated against younger voters.
US District Judge Joseph Laplante initially declined to block the state law.
On October 2, however, he suspended guidance issued by Scanlan that prohibited election officials from considering student IDs for any identification purpose, finding that the guidance extended beyond the law's explicit restriction on their use as primary identification.
The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to suspend Laplante's ruling, prompting New Hampshire to seek emergency intervention from the Supreme Court.
The RNC had argued that the lower court's decision could disrupt identity verification procedures before the approaching election.
The case comes as New Hampshire prepares to elect a replacement for Shaheen, whose retirement leaves an open Senate seat.
CNN reported that a recent poll showed Democrats holding a 31-percentage-point advantage over Republicans among younger adults, a demographic potentially affected by the student identification dispute.
The Supreme Court has also weighed other election-related disputes ahead of the midterms.
In mid-September, the justices rejected President Donald Trump's proposal to change how mail ballots are sent to voters nationwide.
