Thread: 76-Year-Old Woman Successfully Challenges Law

76-Year-Old Woman Successfully Challenges Law

Native American Times, Posted: Jul 30, 2008

FORT MCDOWELL YAVAPAI NATION, ARIZ. – An Arizona law that required a birth certificate or other forms of identification was no match for an illiterate 76-year-old Navajo woman. Turned away from the polls during the 2006 elections, Agnes Laughter felt humiliated and degraded. "It was as if I didn't even exist," she said. She did not possess a birth certificate and had always used her thumbprint as identification, but for the first time was disqualified.

Laughter was determined to redress the injury and joined the Navajo Nation in challenging the constitutionality of the Arizona law, Proposition 200. In April the Navajos reached a settlement with the State of Arizona revising the voting procedures for Native American voters. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice provided a broad list of documents that could serve as voter identification for Native Americans.

Laughter was awarded a citizenship award by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, and earlier this month, the Navajo Nation Council recognized her for her role in filing the lawsuit against Prop 200.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vi ... 4535a88a06

Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

76-Year-Old Woman Successfully Challenges Law

Native American Times, Posted: Jul 30, 2008

FORT MCDOWELL YAVAPAI NATION, ARIZ. – An Arizona law that required a birth certificate or other forms of identification was no match for an illiterate 76-year-old Navajo woman. Turned away from the polls during the 2006 elections, Agnes Laughter felt humiliated and degraded. "It was as if I didn't even exist," she said. She did not possess a birth certificate and had always used her thumbprint as identification, but for the first time was disqualified.

Laughter was determined to redress the injury and joined the Navajo Nation in challenging the constitutionality of the Arizona law, Proposition 200. In April the Navajos reached a settlement with the State of Arizona revising the voting procedures for Native American voters. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice provided a broad list of documents that could serve as voter identification for Native Americans.

Laughter was awarded a citizenship award by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, and earlier this month, the Navajo Nation Council recognized her for her role in filing the lawsuit against Prop 200.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vi ... 4535a88a06

A couple of people not having the right US citizenship papers is NOT a reason to throw out the E-Verification System!

well especially when it can be resolved. Doesn't E-verify give 90 days to sort out issues?

Yes, E-Verify and No Match allow you adequate time to correct errors.

This article is about ID at the polling place. This woman has had almost 60 years to get a state ID. She has had ample time, since the passage of this law to get a state issued ID so she could vote.

I don't feel sorry for these people, they know the law, they knew they should go down and get ID but they showed up at the polls unprepared. She would have been allowed to vote, if she cared enought to make the efforts necessary to do so. She chose to make a issue and go to court instead.

Dixie

WorriedAmerican wrote:

A couple of people not having the right US citizenship papers is NOT a reason to throw out the E-Verification System!

Isn't proposition 200 regarding the requirement to provide proof of citizenship in order to vote. I don't think it has anything to do with E-Verify.

Oops, Dixie was a tad quicker than I in defining Prop. 200.

In all her 76 years, she could have filed papers for a birth certificate. That is bogus.

76 years of life experience didn't teach her nothing.

Stupid is as stupid does.

It takes far less time to get a state ID than it did to do all the other stuipid stuff that started back on election day. Even worse, if she had just learned her lesson and gone to get an ID before the next election, that would have taken less time and effort than the path she chose.

Dixie

Not necessarily bogus. Remember, Indian tribes provide their own type of birth cert. They are a category all to themselves in many things. The Navajo also have the distinction of having NO WRITTEN LANGUAGE. This is part of what made the code talkers during the war so effective. I personally have no problem with a suit that did not do away with the law, but simply added some native documentation to the acceptable list. The main purpose of the law is to make sure those voting are citizens with the right to vote. The same would be with e-verify. IF the US government and Indian councils could agree on acceptable, verifiable, documentation, I would be in favor of that also. The more information available to ensure that those who have the right to work in this country can, as well as making sure that those here illegally can't, is a good thing.