From Travis Fain, WRAL statehouse reporter:

A federal court said Thursday that it will, at least temporarily, block North Carolina from requiring photo ID at the polls next year.

An order explaining the decision will come next week, with the announcement timed just before a statewide mailing was planned explaining the state’s ID rules. Public notice of the decision came in a short note appended to an online case file Thursday in NAACP et al v. Cooper, one of at least two ongoing lawsuits challenging voter ID in the state.

U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs, an Obama appointee, is presiding in the case, which was filed in North Carolina’s Middle District and has had hearings in Winston-Salem.

See more at WRAL