Thanks, corporate America, for shaming Mike Pence! Now here’s a reality check - By Joan Walsh

[DonViejo]

Indiana’s also the home of a law that led to a wave of voting restrictions. Here's why business won't touch that

JOAN WALSH

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s stunning change of mind, promising to “fix” his state’s bigoted “religious freedom” law only two days after stridently defending it on national television, is largely due to the economic backlash by business leaders against the legislation. From Apple to Salesforce to home grown, Republican-led Angie’s List, top corporations made clear they will punish the state for transgressing the rights of LGBT Americans. It was awe-inspiring, and it nudged Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson to reverse himself and announce he won’t sign that state’s version of the Indiana law (as did pressure from WalMart).

But Pence’s quick “religious freedom” turnaround made me think of another notorious Indiana law that has gotten no pushback from the business community over the years: Its 2005 voter identification legislation that paved the way for a rollback of voting rights across the country.

It was Indiana’s groundbreaking law that the Supreme Court upheld in 2008, affirming the decision of a federal district court that turned back civil rights challenges to the new restrictions. Since then, the judge who wrote the 2007 district court decision, conservative Richard Posner, has essentially admitted that he made a mistake. In his 2013 book “Reflections on Judging,” Posner wrote: “I plead guilty to having written the majority opinion” in Crawford vs. Marion County, Ind. He acknowledged that the Indiana legislation was “a type of law now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than of fraud prevention.”

Although Posner quickly wrote that he hadn’t “recanted” his decision, but merely reflected on what the succeeding years and new voter restrictions had taught him, he’s become a leading voice in calling the bills pioneered by Indiana exactly what they have become: a 21st century version of poll taxes and literacy tests, designed and marshaled by Republicans to thwart Democratic constituencies.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/04/01/thanks_corporate_america_for_shaming_mike_pence_now_heres_a_reality_check/