Thread: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS VOTER PHOTO ID - INDIANA

Supreme Court Upholds Law Requiring Indiana Voters to Produce Photo IDs

Monday , April 28, 2008

AP
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WASHINGTON —
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.

In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to deter fraud.

It was the most important voting rights case since the Bush v. Gore dispute that sealed the 2000 election for George W. Bush.

The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,"' Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also agreed with the outcome, but wrote separately.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls. Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Monday's decision comes a week before Indiana's presidential primary.

The case concerned a state law, passed in 2005, that was backed by Republicans as a way to deter voter fraud. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed the law as unconstitutional and called it a thinly veiled effort to discourage elderly, poor and minority voters — those most likely to lack proper ID and who tend to vote for Democrats.

There is little history in Indiana of either in-person voter fraud — of the sort the law was designed to thwart — or voters being inconvenienced by the law's requirements.

"We cannot conclude that the statute imposes 'excessively burdensome requirements' on any class of voters," Stevens said.

Stevens' opinion suggests that the outcome could be different in a state where voters could provide evidence that their rights had been impaired.

But in dissent, Souter said Indiana's voter ID law "threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting rights of tens of thousands of the state's citizens."

Scalia, favoring a broader ruling in defense of voter ID laws, said, "The universally applicable requirements of Indiana's voter-identification law are eminently reasonable. The burden of acquiring, possessing and showing a free photo identification is simply not severe, because it does not 'even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting."'

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352862,00.html

OMG! Could it be common sense???

I'm sure that OBL advocates will be outraged... I can faintly hear the screams of 'racism', 'xenophobia', 'political discrimination', etc....

victory for america-or at least states that want to stop fraud-a red flag should go up anytime a political party does not want an id to be shown-the party or group that does not want an id to be shown to vote wants and encourages voter fraud-on of the biggest voter fraud going on now is this early voting-democrats are giving people food,pocket money and are busing them to the polls and give the voters a list of whom to vote for-this cancels out the votes of people that study the issues and make effort to go vote-politicions say everyone should vote-I disagree-informed people should vote-people being bused to polls and given things and a list means that the writer of the list is getting to vote hundreds of times-democrats cry voter fraud all the whole they commit the biggest fraud of all

Great news. And yes Phred, a victory for common sense in these Orwellian times.

Total common sense.....but I too can hear the screams comming.

I too, heard this GREAT News this afternoon on the radio..!

Showing ID at the polls [citizens ONLY..!] IS common sense and SHOULD be mandatory..

..in ALL states..!

NOW..!

NOT.. to mention we have to do away with the [color=blue][b]“Motor Voter Registrationâ€

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Original thread: http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-113464.html