Skip to main content
CadNews - Comparative News Analysis
Topics
Sign in
Back to brief

Politics · October 23, 2026

How to ban gerrymandering when the Supreme Court is stacked against you

10 sources →

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for New Hampshire to prohibit the use of student IDs as a valid form of voter identification for the upcoming midterm elections. The ruling, issued on October 22, 2026, granted a Republican-backed emergency appeal and overturned a lower court's decision that had blocked state guidance barring student IDs as a backup identification method. The majority cited the Purcell principle, which advises against federal courts altering election rules shortly before an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent, arguing that the principle did not apply because the lower court's order left the actual state law untouched.

Read the original coverage

Reported across the spectrum

  • The Supreme Court ruled that New Hampshire can ban student IDs for voting in the midterms.
  • The decision was issued in response to a Republican-backed emergency appeal.
  • The Court cited the Purcell principle regarding late changes to election rules.
  • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole justice to publicly dissent.
  • New Hampshire passed a law (HB 323) earlier this year removing student IDs as an accepted form of identification.
  • A lower court judge had previously blocked the state's guidance that prevented student IDs from being used as backup identification.

Reported by only some outlets

  • The decision comes less than two weeks before a closely contested U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire.
  • The Coalition for Open Democracy was one of the groups that challenged the law in federal court.
  • State Representative Donald McFarlane sponsored the bill because he believes colleges lack the same identity controls as government agencies.
  • Democrats passed a bill to eliminate gerrymandering in the previous House session, but it failed in the Senate.

About these outlets

CadNews does not determine absolute truth or endorse political viewpoints. It compares publicly available reporting, identifies shared facts, highlights framing differences, and flags uncertainty.