Constitutional Law

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Voter ID Law

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in the voter ID case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, rejecting a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to show a government-issued photo ID before being allowed to vote.

Justin Levitt, Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, described the case for ACSBlog as turning on two issues. “The Court will determine whether a law that makes it substantially more difficult for many eligible citizens to cast a valid ballot is toward the ‘severe’ end of the spectrum of First Amendment infringements. And it will determine whether such a law is sufficiently justified by a state’s asserted interest in confronting a hypothetical concern.” He predicted the decision “will set the ground rules governing which eligible American citizens will be able to exercise their right to vote, and which eligible citizens will not, in 2008 and beyond.”

According to SCOTUSBlog, “three Justices said the evidence offered against the requirement in Indiana did not support a challenge to the law as written — that is, a ‘facial’ challenge – and three others said the law only imposed a minimal and justified burden on voters. Three Justices dissented.”  Thus, “a majority of the Court has not barred all future challenges to voter ID laws, provided future cases seek to test such laws as they were actually applied in a specific election.  Still, the plurality opinion that announced the Court’s judgment – written by Justice John Paul Stevens — probably means that any such ‘as-applied’ challenges would not be easy to make.”

ACS hosted a press briefing on the case before arguments in January. Video and a transcript from that discussion are available, which featured Deborah Goldberg, Bradley A. Smith, Jon M. Greenbaum, and moderator Tova Wang. Audio of the argument before the High Court is available here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on April 28, 2008 (boomark / email).