Supreme Court Throws voting rights under the bus...

By SEDER

The Supreme Court has ruled to uphold Indiana'a voter ID laws. These laws have the effect of making it more difficult for the elderly and the poor to vote. However, they have the "benefit" of ensuring that that our elections will never suffer the voting fraud like we have no record of taking place in the 20th century!

That's right-- make it harder to vote in order to promote society's interest in  preventing something that literally never happens. 

In dissent, Justices Souter and Ginsburg:

Indiana’s "Voter ID Law" threatens to impose nontrivial
burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the State’s
citizens, [] and a significant percentage of those individuals are
likely to be deterred from voting.
The statute is
unconstitutional under the balancing standard of Burdick v. Takushi,
504 U. S. 428 (1992): a State may not burden the right to vote merely
by invoking abstract interests, be they legitimate, [] or even
compelling, but must make a particular, factual showing that threats to
its interests outweigh the particular impediments it has imposed. The State has made no such justification here, and as to some aspects of its law, it has hardly even tried.

 More here.

By Fight4itApril 28, 2008 - 4:38pm

The problem is really quite simple. No one believes that Republicans backed this law for the altruistic cause of fighting voter fraud. Indeed, as Justice Stevens pointed out in his decision, "The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history."

So, if it was not necessary, why did they do it? Well, I believe they did so in a deliberate effort to disenfranchise traditionally Democratic voters. As Justices Souter and Ginsburg opine, the law "threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the State’s citizens, [...] and a significant percentage of those individuals are likely to be deterred from voting."

While Democrats and Republicans may have fundamental philosophical differences of opinion (even within their respective parties), there isn't really any doubt about which voting demographic will suffer; and it isn't yours. This is why the right's position is met with a lot of skepticism especially with regards to their motives.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/07-21.pdf