Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Injunction granted against Wisconsin voter ID law in Milwaukee NAACP v. Walker

Hat tip to Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog for bringing this decision to our attention. - R.B.

In Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker, the Court has issued a temporary injunction against implementation of Wisconsin's new voter ID law, on the ground that the NAACP will probably prevail in proving that the statute is unconstitutional under Wisconsin's constitution.

In arriving at its decision the Court noted that
-a significant proportion of eligible voters do not possess the requisite photo ID;
-the statute imposed a substantial burden on qualified voters;
-there was no evidence of voter identification fraud which would have warranted such legislation;
-the statute's procedures were inflexible;
-the statute would have disproportionately impacted elderly, indigent, and minority voters; and
-irreparable harm would flow from denying the injunction.

The court cited, as an example of the law's impact, the case of Ruthelle Frank, who is 84 years old, a lifelong resident of the same Wisconsin town, and a member of its town board for the past 18 years. Ms. Frank has voted in every election for the past 64 years, but does not have a voter ID card, and might not be able to get one because her name is misspelled on her birth certificate.

Order granting temporary injunction

No comments:

Post a Comment

I have a few simple comment rules:

(a) No

1. rudeness
2. falsehood
3. deception
4. unfair tactics
5. comment spam
6. shilling or trolling

(b) stay on topic; and

(c) anonymous comments are okay, but sign with a handle so we'll know which "Anonymous" you are.

Thanks for commenting.

Ray