Legal experts were left outraged Saturday as the NAACP pushed back against a new Florida law that critics argue will “disenfranchise” thousands of young voters.
“This is voter suppression!” argued attorney Karen Kenyatta Russell, the daughter of the late NBA player and civil rights activist Bill Russell, writing in a social media post Saturday.
Earlier this year, Florida state lawmakers passed House Bill 991, a piece of legislation similar to President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to register to vote. The law will also bar university-issued ID cards as voter identification at the polls, starting next year.
The NAACP challenged Florida’s new law with a lawsuit filed Friday, seeking to have the student ID ban overturned. In the lawsuit, the NAACP argued the logic behind the new law was inconsistent given the forms of voter identification that are still permitted.
“First, the Governor defended the new prohibition on the use of student IDs at the polls by noting that such ID does not prove Florida residency,” the lawsuit reads.
“The problem with this explanation is that most forms of voter ID that HB 991 leaves in place as acceptable voter ID likewise do not establish Florida residency, including passports, military ID, and concealed carry permits.”
Joyce Vance, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, argued the new law was passed by Republicans out of fear, and urged voters to counteract efforts of alleged voter suppression at the ballot box.
“State law makes them eligible to vote where they go to school. But Republicans are afraid of their votes,” Vance wrote Saturday in a social media post on X. “Remember, no one would be trying so hard to take away your vote unless they understood how powerful it makes you. Vote no matter what.”
This is voter suppression! “Concealed carry gun IDs are OK, but not college IDs to comply with Florida's voter ID law”
— Karen Kenyatta Russell🍀 (@Karen_Russell) October 17, 2026