Cert Accepted in Voter ID Case

U.S. Supreme Court

Posted Sep 25, 2007, 01:05 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether voter ID laws are constitutional.

The court will consider an Indiana law that requires voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot, the Associated Press reports. The en banc 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the Indiana requirement as a way to discourage voter fraud.

The court will decide whether the laws improperly interfere with the right of poor people and minorities to vote, the New York Times reports.

Voter ID laws in Arizona, Michigan and Georgia have also survived court challenges, but Missouri’s was struck down. Such laws often discourage poor voters, who tend to vote Democratic, ABAJournal.com noted in a post yesterday.

Critics say Democratic-appointed judges often vote to strike down the laws while Republican appointees vote to uphold them. Election law expert Richard Hasen had argued in a Washington Post column that cert should be granted "to correct a troubling partisan divide among lower-court judges over the constitutionality of such laws."

SCOTUSblog reports that the Supreme Court also granted cert in 16 other cases today.

Originally posted 09-25-2007 at 9:43 AM.

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