During 2011, this blog published many articles about the GOP's push to pass legislation requiring one of a very limited selection of government-issued photo IDs (like a driver’s license, passport or gun permit) to vote.
The new laws require specific identification not carried by a disproportionate portion of certain demographic groups that tend to vote Democratic. These groups include Blacks, Hispanics, the poor, seniors, and the young.
Because such laws do have a disproportionate on certain demographic groups, the U.S. Department of Justice, last Friday, blocked South Carolina's new voter photo ID law. It is widely thought the Justice Dept. will move to also block Texas' new voter photo ID law in the coming weeks.
Two of our articles looked at the pending show down down between the U.S. Department of Justice and the conservative leaning justices on the Supreme Court of the United States overt the voter photo ID laws and possibly the 1965 Voting Rights Act, itself:
- Does Texas Want the USDOJ To Reject Its Voter Photo ID Law?
- DOJ v. SCOTUS On Texas' Voter Photo ID Law
On Friday, Slate published an article that also looks at the pending USDOJ v. SCOTUS showdown:
On the Friday before Christmas Day, the Department of Justice formally objected to a new South Carolina law requiring voters to produce an approved form of photo ID in order to vote. That move already has drawn cheers from the left and jeers from the right. The DoJ said South Carolina could not show that its new law would not have an adverse impact on racial minorities, who are less likely to have acceptable forms of identification.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley denounced the DoJ decision blocking the law under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: “It is outrageous, and we plan to look at every possible option to get this terrible, clearly political decision overturned so we can protect the integrity of our electoral process and our 10th Amendment rights.” The state’s attorney general vowed to fight the DoJ move in court, and thanks to an odd quirk in the law, the issue could get fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, which could well use it to strike down the Voting Rights Act provision as unconstitutional before the 2012 elections.
The current dispute has an eerie echo. More than 45 years ago in 1966, South Carolina also went to the Supreme Court to complain that Section 5 unconstitutionally intruded on its sovereignty. Under the 1965 Act, states with a history of racial discrimination like South Carolina could not make changes in its voting rules—from major changes like redistricting to changes as minor as moving a polling place across the street—without getting the permission of either the U.S. Department of Justice or a three-judge court in Washington, D.C. The state had to show the law was not enacted with the purpose, or effect, of making minority voters worse off than they already were.
... In its 1966 South Carolina v. Katzenbach decision, the Supreme Court said the law requiring “preclearance” of voting changes, while an extreme intrusion on states’ rights, was necessary because lesser measures—like federal government suits over each discriminatory voting practice—had not worked. ... Today, Some conservatives argue that Section 5 is no longer constitutional, because the states subject to preclearance don’t present a special danger of racial discrimination.
... If South Carolina argues in court [in 2012] that it is unconstitutional to require it to submit its voter ID law for federal approval, and the three-judge court rejects that argument, it is hard to imagine the Supreme Court conservatives refusing to hear that case.
... Why did the Obama DoJ deny preclearance, knowing it could well set up this massive confrontation and potentially lead to the downfall of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act? There are both principled and political reasons.
First of all, it was the right thing to do. As the DoJ letter explains, South Carolina presented no evidence that its law was necessary to prevent voter fraud, and the evidence was uncontested that minority voters were less likely to have ID
Second, if the Court is going to strike down Section 5, it might be politically better for this to happen before the 2012 elections, so that Obama can run against a Supreme Court, and the possibility that a President Romney could appoint a young version of Justice Scalia to take a retiring Justice Kennedy’s seat on the court, solidifying the court’s conservative majority for a generation.
It’s a gamble, both legally and politically, and no one knows for sure how it will turn out. But South Carolina may fare much better before the Roberts court this spring than it did before the Warren court in 1966.
Read the full article @ Slate.
Voter Photo ID Related Stories:
- US AG Holder’s Voting Rights Gamble - The Supreme Court Voter ID Showdown
- USDOJ Blocks South Carolina Voter Photo ID Law
- Video: Attorney General Holder Speaks On Voting Rights
- Attorney General Holder Speaks On Voting Rights
- ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Wisconsin’s Voter Photo ID Law
- New GOP Data Shows No Need For Strict Voter Photo ID Law
- Democrats Planning Major Voter Education Effort To Counter Voter ID Laws
- Does Texas Want the USDOJ To Reject Its Voter Photo ID Law?.
- Wisconsin Voter ID Law May Prevent 84-Year-Old Woman From Voting
- NAACP Targets Tougher Voter Qualifications
- Rafael Anchia On Texas' Voter Photo ID Law
- DOJ v. SCOTUS On Texas' Voter Photo ID Law
- Voter Photo ID Fact Sheet
- DOJ Tells Texas It's Still Waiting For Requested Data On Voter Photo ID
- War On Terror "Real ID" Driver's License Federal Law Meets Voter Photo ID Law
- Texas SOS Responds To US DOJ On Voter Photo ID Law Preclearance Questions
- DOJ v. SCOTUS On Texas' Voter Photo ID Law - DOJ Asks For More Data
- Texas Cites Bush-Era DOJ Approval Of Voter ID Law In Pre-clearance Petition
- New Voting Laws Could Keep 5 Million Voters From Voting In 2012
- Voter Photo ID Requirement Public Notification Starts With The Constitutional Amendment Election
- Brennan Center for Justice On Voter Photo ID Laws
- Democrats Launch Campaign To Educate Voters On Photo ID Laws
- Obama DOJ Questions South Carolina's New Voter Photo ID Law
- Texas Voter Photo ID Requirement
- Texas Voter Photo ID Law Doesn't Include Veterans' ID Cards
- Texas SOS Election Advisory No. 2011-10
- The League of Women Voters of Texas Voter Information Guide (8/1/11)
- DNC Chair: How to Stop Voter-ID Laws
- Arizona Files Lawsuit Saying 1965 Voting Rights Act Unconstitutional
- Republicans rewriting state election laws in ways that could hurt Democrats
- The GOP Reveal Depth of Their Voter-Exclusion Plan
- Hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights - Sept. 8, 2011 - video
- Indiana prof: ‘Definitely a chance’ that DOJ would reject Texas voter photo ID law
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