RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s photo voter identification law was upheld on Thursday, as a federal judge rejected arguments by civil rights groups that Republicans enacted the requirement with discriminatory intent against Black and Latino voters.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, who presided in spring 2024 over a non-jury trial in a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP and several local chapters, is a huge legal victory for Republican legislative leaders who passed the law in late 2018 — weeks after voters approved a constitutional amendment backing the idea. The state Supreme Court also upheld the law in 2023. The NAACP can appeal Biggs’ decision.

After crossing legal hurdles, the ID mandate under the 2018 law was carried out for the first time in the fall 2023 municipal elections. More than 5.7 million registered voters in the ninth-largest state also were subject to it in November 2024 when they cast ballots for president, governor and a host of statewide and local offices. And another 1.5 million voters cast ballots under the law during the recent March 3 primary.