The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, 22 October 2026, cleared the way for New Hampshire to stop students from using their school ID cards to vote in the 3 November midterm election. In a brief, unsigned order in Scanlan v. Coalition for Open Democracy, the justices paused a federal judge's ruling that had let election officials weigh a student ID as backup evidence of identity. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent.
The New Hampshire State House in Concord, where lawmakers passed HB 323 in April 2026. Photo: Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Key points
- The Supreme Court granted New Hampshire's emergency stay on 22 October 2026, so student IDs cannot be used to vote in the state on 3 November.
- The state law, HB 323, passed in April and took effect in June; it removed student ID cards from the list of photo IDs accepted to get a ballot.
- Judge Joseph Laplante left the law in place but blocked guidance from Secretary of State David Scanlan that barred student IDs for any purpose.
- The justices cited the Purcell principle: federal courts should not change election rules on the eve of an election.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying the lower court only corrected misleading guidance and did not change the law.
What the Supreme Court actually decided
The one-paragraph order does not rule on whether New Hampshire's law is constitutional. Instead, it puts on hold two preliminary orders that U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante issued on 2 and 5 October, and it keeps them on hold while the state's appeal moves through the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and any later petition to the Supreme Court. The 1st Circuit had refused to pause Laplante's ruling, which is why the state went to Washington.
The majority gave a single reason. Quoting a 2020 precedent, the order says the Court "has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election," and adds that the district court "did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle." The order was unsigned, and the Court did not publish a vote count. Some viral posts on X described the result as 8-1, but Jackson is the only justice on record as dissenting.
The practical effect, as NBC News and the Associated Press reported, is that student IDs are out in New Hampshire for this election, both as a primary photo ID and as a backup. According to the New Hampshire Bulletin, voters will need a document such as a driver's license, a U.S. passport, a military ID or another government-issued ID.
How a narrow ruling became a national story
HB 323, signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, struck high school, college and university IDs from the list of cards that are expressly valid at the polls. But New Hampshire law also has a "safety valve" that lets a voter without qualifying photo ID prove identity by other means. In April, Scanlan told election officials that student IDs could not be used for any purpose. Laplante found that this guidance went further than the statute, and he ordered the state not to stop local officials from considering a student ID under the safety valve.
The Coalition for Open Democracy, a nonprofit that helps high schools run voter registration drives, brought the lawsuit with other groups. It argues that the law burdens the right to vote and targets young voters. Laplante said he did not expect the group to win on that broader claim, which is why the law itself stayed in force.
The state answered that Laplante's order forced it to undo months of preparation: voting guides, polling-place posters, radio ads and an updated election manual. The Republican National Committee filed a brief backing the state. State Rep. Donald McFarlane, who sponsored the bill, told the AP that the decision "is a victory for common sense" and lets HB 323 "work as intended."
Jackson saw the timing argument the other way. She wrote that the district court's order "left the state election rule untouched" and was "reasonably designed to address alleged misinformation, not to change the law." In her view, an order that stops officials from misstating election rules "does not contribute to public confusion, it prevents that very problem."
What happens next
For 3 November, the rules are now settled: student IDs will not count in New Hampshire. The lawsuit itself continues. The appeal goes on in the 1st Circuit, and the constitutional questions will be argued later. The New Hampshire Bulletin notes that this is the first case over a student ID ban for voting to reach the Supreme Court.
The stakes are high this year. New Hampshire's ballot includes an open U.S. Senate seat, left by retiring Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, in a race between Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu and Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas that could help decide control of the chamber. Election fights over voter access are not limited to the U.S.; WorldScope recently covered how Lula agreed to open his bank and phone records before Brazil's runoff, another campaign where trust in the process became the story.
Why it matters
The order is the latest sign that the Purcell principle is one of the most powerful tools in election law. As Election Day gets closer, the bar for a federal judge to change anything gets higher. This case shows that this can be true even when the judge said he was only correcting official guidance. Lawyers on both sides are likely to cite it in other last-minute election disputes.
For voters, the lesson is simpler. Students in New Hampshire who rely on a campus card should check the Secretary of State's list of accepted IDs now, not at the polls. The ruling also lands in a heated national argument over who can vote and how. That debate has grown louder in recent weeks, including when Obama criticized the Trump team over the Ilhan Omar citizenship probe.
Sources
- Supreme Court of the United States: Scanlan v. Coalition for Open Democracy, No. 26A512 (order and Jackson dissent, 22 Oct 2026)
- SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court allows New Hampshire to restrict use of student IDs in voting
- NBC News: Supreme Court says New Hampshire student IDs can't be used to vote in November
- Associated Press: Supreme Court allows New Hampshire to fully ban student IDs for voting in midterms
- New Hampshire Bulletin: New Hampshire's SCOTUS appeal puts student voter ID law in flux
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