Suppressing The Vote
Apr 28th, 2008 at 5:56 pm by Susie
Not too many bloggers have been writing about this, which is a shame. This is an absolutely shameless partisan ruling, and if I believed in hell, I would think that Tony Scalia and his little SCOTUS friends will burn there for eternity:
The Supreme Court’s decision upholding Indiana’s vote ID law was unable to secure 5 votes for a single rationale. Stevens, in an opinion joined by Kennedy and Roberts, rejected the facial challenge to the law but left open the possibility of future litigation if it was proven to be an undue burden. Scalia, in a concurrence joined by Thomas and reasonable, moderate Samuel Alito wanted to foreclose future litigation. (I assume Stevens may have joined the majority partly to keep Kennedy and Roberts on board with a more minimalist opinion.)
The key problem with the decision to uphold the statute is summed up in Souter’s dissent: “a State may not burden the right to vote merely by invoking abstract interests, be they legitimate, see ante, at 7–13, 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.” Consider this remarkable passage from the Stevens opinion:
The only kind of voter fraud that SEA 483 addresses is in-person voter impersonation at polling places. The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history. Moreover, petitioners argue that provisions of the Indiana Criminal Code punishing such conduct as a felony provide adequate protection against the risk that such conduct will occur in the future. It remains true, however, that flagrant examples of such fraud in other parts of the country have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists, that occasional examples have surfaced in recent years, and that Indiana’s own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago Mayor—though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud—demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.
So the only type of fraud shown to have occurred in Indiana history is a type the statute specifically doesn’t address, and as it happens this apparently irrational choice happens to coincide with the partisan interests of the legislators who enacted the statute. This really isn’t good enough if you want to burden the fundamental right to vote.
I heard this on the news on the drive home and am simply outraged. Hearing some bullshit State’s AG claim voter suppression as a cure for non-existent voter fraud without anyone in the media crying foul frustrates me to tears and anger. Where has America gone? What happened to the land of the free and home of the brave? Scared to death by fucking fascists.
It’s been downhill ever since Bush v. Gore. I have absolutely no respect for the majority on this court. It’s shown itself to be small, partisan, and mean-spirited, upholding precedents when they serve the narrow interests of its base and ideology and tossing them overboard when they’re inconvenient. What a disgrace.
I wrote about this. It’s nothing more than a modern-day poll tax unless the State intends on giving out these ID cards for free. Which they do not intend to do, because that would do away with the whole reason for this law — to keep those pesky untermenschen from voting in elections that good white rich Amurricans is supposed to win.
- Badtux the Jim-Crow-smellin’ Penguin