literacy tests of yesteryear have been replaced by subtler and more sophisticated attempts to control who can participate in the political process. The Confederate Flag has come down in South Carolina, but North Carolina is still fighting to restrict voting rights.

Exactly a month after the VRA was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013, North Carolina passed the country’s most sweeping voting restrictions. Key portions of the law—cutting early voting, eliminating same-day registration during early voting, not counting out of precinct ballots—were upheld on a preliminary basis in 2014. Thousands were prevented from voting as a result—38 percent were African-American and 47 percent were Democrats. (In recent elections, African-Americans in North Carolina were twice as likely to vote early, use same-day registration, and vote out of precinct comparedwith whites.)

Democracy North Carolina

Now the law is back in court and voters turned away because of the new restrictions testified on day one of the trial. (The state’s new voter ID law was unexpectedly softened by the legislature last month and is not part of the proceedings.)

Dale Hicks, a 39-year-old former sergeant in the Marine Corps, moved from Camp Lejeune in Onslow County to Raleigh in Wake County after returning from a 13-month deployment in Afghanistan. When he went to vote in his new hometown on October 31, 2014, Hicks was told he could not vote since the registration deadline had passed, and he could no longer update his registration because North Carolina had eliminated same-day registration. “It made me feel like I was being stifled,” he said