In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly passed, and Governor Pat McCrory signed, HB 589, a voter identification law.

A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit invalidated that law in 2016, and the Supreme Court later denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in 2017 after disputes about whether North Carolina's new governor, Roy Cooper, could withdraw the petition.

After the HB 589 litigation, the General Assembly modified state law, again over Cooper's veto, to direct that the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate be able to intervene in any litigation over the constitutionality of state law.

The district court denied both motions, asserting that Stein would defend the law fairly.

[2] The Supreme Court ruling means that Republican legislators in the state of North Carolina can act and advocate for a voter-identification law that they believe the state's attorney general, a Democrat, isn't defending adequately in court.