U.S.Court order
Supreme Court lets New Hampshire restrict use of student IDs in voting before November election
The Supreme Court on October 22, 2026, stayed a federal judge's order that barred New Hampshire from discouraging election officials from accepting student IDs as evidence of voter identity. The unsigned order in Scanlan v. Coalition for Open Democracy cited the Purcell principle against changing election rules on the eve of an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Key points
- New Hampshire's HB 323, passed in April, removed student IDs from the photo IDs expressly valid to obtain a ballot.SCOTUSblog
- Judge Joseph Laplante left that provision in place but blocked an April directive from Secretary of State David Scanlan.SCOTUSblog
- The directive discouraged officials from considering student IDs under a safety-valve identity provision.SCOTUSblog
- The First Circuit had refused to pause Laplante's order before the state applied to the justices.SCOTUSblog
- Jackson wrote that the injunction targeted misinformation and did not change the law.SCOTUSblog