COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — South Carolina is suing the U.S. Justice Department, saying it was wrong to block the state from requiring people to show government-issued photo identification to vote.

Attorney General Alan Wilson asks a judge to overturn the decision in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The Justice Department rejected the law in December. It said the law didn’t meet the burden under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices that prevented blacks from voting.

South Carolina’s was the first voter ID law to be refused by the Justice Department in nearly 20 years.

Wilson says South Carolina’s law doesn’t discriminate against any voters.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.