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Blitzer: the background, the enormity of what the Supreme Court has decided today.
Kelli: Now that the Supreme Court has upheld Indiana’s law it basically gives a green light to other states to pass similar legislation which of course would be just in time for the November election.
CNN covers the newest abominable decision by the Roberts Court. There are 20 other states that were waiting for this ruling so they can pounce and purge the voting rolls. Remember, there was no evidence of any voter fraud—Voting is a “right,” not a privilege and I don’t mean as in Scalia’s Right Wing perceptions. I knew the shift to the right with Roberts and Alito would produce this kind of decision. I’m working with many others to see how we can handle this ruling properly. I will do my best. More opinions are starting to flow in now on this horrendous decision by the Roberts Supreme Court.
The ACLU responded: ACLU Disappointed With Supreme Court’s Voter ID Decision
“Today’s decision minimizes the very real burden that Indiana’s voter ID law places on tens of thousands of eligible voters who lack a government-issued identification while accepting at face value Indiana’s unsubstantiated claim of voter fraud,” said Ken Falk, Legal Director of the ACLU of Indiana and lead counsel on the case. (more articles below the fold)
PFAW: People For: Supreme Court Won’t Stand Up For Voters
The Supreme Court today rejected a challenge to Indiana’s voter identification law, the most restrictive in the country, despite the fact that the law could block access to the ballot box for thousands of citizens.
“The Supreme Court has abdicated its role as the defender of our democracy. The Justices should clear the path to the ballot box for voters, not help block the way,” said Kathryn Kolbert, President of People For the American Way Foundation. “Voter ID laws are intended to suppress voter turnout. If voter ID advocates were truly interested in fixing our election system, they’d be working to make elections verifiable and end deceptive practices that keep people from the polls…
The Supreme Court’s decision is disappointing. The Court’s decision today places obstacles to the fundamental rights of American citizens—especially the poor, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities—to participate in the electoral process. Having American citizens pay for underlying documents needed for an identification card and travel to distant motor vehicle locations for processing hinders—and diminishes—their right to vote.
The right to vote is a foundation of our democracy. American citizens who wish to vote must be able to do so.
Michael Froomkin: Crawford v. Marion County Election Board: An Electoral, But Not Doctrinal, Nightmare
But while the opinion may be an electoral nightmare, three things keep it from being the doctrinal nightmare that it could have been: the procedural posture, some of the facts, and the fractured nature of the opinions. Unfortunately, this case is going be spun as holding that “Voter ID laws are constitutional” when in fact it holds only that they are not per se unconstitutional.
ACSBlog: Voter ID Laws: Preventing Fraud or Suppressing the Vote?
On October 23, 2007, ACS hosted a panel at the National Press Club, where leading experts discussed how voter photo-ID laws impact our democracy. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument on Wednesday, January 9, 2008, in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, which will examine the constitutionality of requiring voters to show photo ID.
AdamB says: SCOTUS Upholds GOP-Pushed Voter ID Laws.
dday: About That Voter Registration Drive
And don’t miss Digby’s: Validating Voter Suppression
I have been writing about this since before I started this blog. It’s at the heart of the Florida debacle in 2000, where they illegitimately purged voter rolls and relied on arcane interpretations of the rules to deny people the fundamental right to have their votes counted. It goes all the way back to the reconstruction period and has continued right up to Ohio in 2004.
The Supreme Court has just legitimized the notion that “voter fraud” is a problem when, in fact, every study shows that it simply does not exist in any systematic way and that the voter disenfranchisement that results from such laws is a far more serious problem…read on
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Conservative judicial activism!
I don’t see where the problem lies with asking someone to have identification present. There’s really no excuse to not have it.
These pigs will be shoving corporate fascism down our throats for the next 30 years! Get use to it!
Long after the neocons are a footnote on histories trash heap of elected government, these vile bastards will be keeping the 26% interests alive and well.
Tar and feather the lot of them.
Palooka @ 2:
Unless the state plans on giving them for free to people who would be considered poor, then these types of laws amount to little more than a poll tax, and those are unconstitutional.
Palooka @ 2:
There are plenty of good reasons not to have a photo ID. Not the least of which is that they cost money. There is as yet no law forcing any american to have a government issued ID. And if the Democrats favored one the wingers would cry that we were tryingregister their handguns by doing so.
The law mandating a government issued ID is a backdoor means teast. In the past such means testing was considered unconstitutional. But that was before the Supremes became an arm of the Republican party.
Palooka @ 2:
Government IDs cost money - I agree with Bushflipflops - this is the equivalent of a poll tax, which is not only unconstitutional but also bullshit.
What’s wrong with showing your ID at the voting booth?
That would stop voter fraud on all sides of the political spectrum.
I’m voting Democratic this election year most likely. But you should have to show a valid ID when you vote.
Just go ahead and get the microchip in head and the barcode your arm , cattle. I don’t know what you guys are so mad about. You need voter I.D. How else will the Diebold machines know which votes to throw out?
Ok, so then churches, unions, student groups etc. band together to help people get the proper ID’s. And if this mobilization helps spread a Democratic message, all the better.
thinking about it, the states are in for a rush on their respective license office, tying up these already congested bureaucratic enclaves…..but thinking somemore…we as Americans don’t really vote, or haven’t in the past.
the decision has been made and there is no recourse, so we need to buckle down and add yet another item on our list of things to do…get IDs for the poor!! get them registered!!! get them voting!!!
i support legislation that makes voting MANDATORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fixes all this shit!!!
I believe the 6 - 3 ruling information at the end says it all. Our Supreme Court is no longer above politics. Argue all you want, but the votes and nominating administrations says it all.
Shame on us. Democracy is dead in America. And we are trying to bring it to Iraq? What a f*cking joke.
Palooka @ 2:
Actually, there’s no excuse for this country not to have AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION. If we can give a fucking Social Security Number to every baby born here, we can automatically register every eligible voter when s/he turns 18. (Ever tried NOT having a Social Security Number, by the way?)
Not everyone has a photo-id. People who have them tend to think that everyone does. And so many think that everyone can afford them. The same way McCain thinks that everyone can just skip a vacation when times are tough.
Voter fraud is nothing new in this country. Stealing elections is nothing new in this country. But it’s not done by the poor folks just trying to cast a vote. It’s done by the people already in power trying to prevent votes from being cast.
There are days I think this country is simply doomed. I’ll keep fighting, but I’ll also have my escape plan ready.
Zinto @ 8:
Take a picture of everyone who registers to vote, and mail the voter cards with the pictures on them. FREE! Then, it at least won’t be a poll tax.
Nonsense. Voter fraud comes from the top down. We have enough trouble trying to get people who are eligible to vote actually out to vote. The real fraud in this country comes from preventing those who do go out to vote from casting ballots.
Palooka @ 2:
There is plenty of excuse, if one doesn’t drive, there is no need for a driver’s license. One is old, one is poor, then one must find transport to the official department, wherever the surrogate id will be found. This is an undue burden.
There is plenty of excuse in this land when being old or poor or both is held to be an unacceptable condition.
Voting is a fundamental right but the Fascists want only their ilk to vote. Are you one of they?
We are required to show a photo ID in Fla. but our driver’s license has our photo on it. The photo on my license was taken so long ago that it looks nothing like me today. But the people at the poll take my license, look at it and look at me then proceed to let me vote. The photo means nothing as far as truly ID-ing the person as far as I can tell. It just seems to be done more out of routine than actual ID.
I don’t know what a non driver shows for proof.
I’m dreaming of riots at the polls when folk are denied their Constitutional rights !
They will steal the presidency again. Down here in Florida, there will be amendments in the November ballot that deal with the separation of state and church. My point being that this will mobilized the religious fundies and who will they vote for once they’re in the booth is not rocket science. Remember what they wanted to do in California, about splitting the college vote, now this deal with the ID, and I now this in FL (I know that this already happened in ‘04).
Thanks to the Democrats for helping install the Roberts Court. Thanks to the Democrats for the continuing War in Iraq, High Gas and Food prices , erosion of the envrionment ,etc,etc.
What a differen’t World we could have lived in had they used the one device the Constitution gives them in upholding the rule of law, Impeachment.
Could Congress quickly pass a law making the Supreme Court decision futile?
The sky is not falling. Before Oregon went to mail in ballots you had to show your ID at the polling place. I thought it was odd that other states didn’t require an ID to prove it was the right person voting. The simple solution is making sure that people get the proper identification.
Papers please, where are your papers?
Sieg Heil!
Shannon @ 6:
Where I live it’s called a driver’s licence. Has photo ID. So does passport. Both cost money, so? I was under the impression that EVERYONE was supposed to carry ID or be charged as a vagrant under most laws.
anneyhussein @ 20:
Doubtful. Although the Court has ruled that voting is a Constitutional right, the states set the qualifications. (By the way, the Constitution does not enumerate any basic right to vote. It only states the bases on which a state may not deny it.)
I suppose Congress could try something anyway, hoping that its law, Constitutional or not, would govern this election. But Bush would veto it.
bobswire @ 19:
It’s both parties. They have a duopoly. But all people think to do about it is run a big third-party name for the presidency.
No electoral reform, no change. Ever.
And it’s just going to get worse. This decision demonstrates it.
Even electing one of the two Democrats to the White House only postpones disaster for a while.
Palooka @ 2:
If you are elderly, disabled, perhaps on a fixed income, in assisted living, etc. it gets to be a burden to go to DMV. There’s probably no excuse for you and me, but if you’ve ever lived around the so-called ‘underclass’, then you’d know that their lives are radically different than the lives of the rest of us. Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” to get an idea about living life with very limit resources, near insurmountable obstacles and no support system / safety net.
Voting fraud of the type the bill is supposedly designed to prevent is very, very rare in America. The law is really just a blatant and evil attempt to wipe low-income (and democratic leaning) voters off the rolls. It seems reasonable but it’s really about taking away the civil rights of non-conservatives.
I have an older cousin who, when he hears of people involved in particularly despicable - though not necessarily illegal - behavior says, “They should be taken out and shot - prison’s too good for them!” The people behind this law deserve no less.
ConcernedCanuck @ 23:
Uh, no.
I’m as liberal as they come but I don’t see what this has to do with disenfranchising voters, why don’t you just bring your fucking ID with you to vote?? They say it will hurt elderly, well, don’t they have to show ID when they pick up their prescriptions? Or open a bank account? Or do ANYTHING at all anymore? And I don’t know if I want somebody who is trying to ‘hide out’ under the law refusing to be identified to have voting power anyway.
ConcernedCanuck @ 23:
I don’t think that’s true in every state. Think of all the people in cities that don’t have drivers’ licenses because they can use public transportation. New York City, for instance. Then there are people who are living with other people who don’t have drivers’ licenses and certainly not passports — such as many older women who don’t drive, people in assisted living communities, etc. Then there are homeless people, living the best they can.
All well and good, the ACLU must have the law on it’s side. But why can’t you get ID? I just don’t get it. If all it took to vote some wanker out of office, one I didn’t like, especially if the accusations about all this are accurate (trying to disenfranchise Dem’s) I would be sure to get my ID just so as to prove what a failure the effort is. BTW, my state, Utah asks for my ID every time I’ve ever voted here in the last 11 elections, whether municipal, primary, or general election. Hasn’t held me up one bit.
tyler82 @ 28:
Not if you believe what you just typed after your opener…
Rusty Shackleford @ 27:
Really? Guess I live in a third world country because I’ve seen/known people that were thrown in jail for refusing to provide ID. It is necessary in everything you do nowadays. Hell, you can’t even go to the doctor’s without ID. Using the excuse of old age, or wealth is just an excuse. How do people on welfare or old age security cash their cheques without ID???
anneyhussein @ 29:
I still don’t see the problem, besides extreme cases such as homeless. I would go NOWHERE without ID. You never know what the hell can happen in this world.
ConcernedCanuck @ 32:
Well, you live in Canada, and I guess the law is different there. In America you are not required to carry an ID around with you.
anneyhussein @ 20:
No. Unless they amend the Constitution.
But to the point, voter IDs are the tip of the iceberg. How is a voter who works two jobs and struggling going to find time to go vote? Much less research the candidates and issues? There should be a voting holiday (or half day at least). And if IDs are required, perhaps the state should provide voter IDs free of charge.
Karen @ 24:
I would presume that when the Dems take back control of the Indiana Legislature they could remove the voter ID law without subverting Scalia and Alitos’ vague “minimum burden” standard.
Rusty Shackleford @ 34:
I would think proving who you are so you can vote, should not be a problem though. How easy is it to defraud now, if you don’t have to prove who you are?
What happens with people who vote absentee ballots?
ConcernedCanuck @ 23:
I assume by your screen name that we both live in the same country, but for some reason you are under the impression that photo ID is mandatory or you will be arrested for vagrancy in Canada. I can assure you there are a whole lot of people in this country that have neither passport or driver’s license. No law requires it.