SCOTUS Strikes Again!

[marmar]

from AlterNet's PEEK:


SCOTUS Strikes Again!

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 10:43 AM on April 28, 2008.

In the "most important voting rights case since Bush v Gore," the Supreme Court validated GOP voter fraud talking points.




Upholds bullshit voter ID law from Indiana (sorry, everyone):

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.

In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to prevent fraud.

It was the most important voting rights case since the Bush v. Gore dispute that sealed the 2000 election for George W. Bush. But the voter ID ruling lacked the conservative-liberal split that marked the 2000 case.

The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy. Stevens was a dissenter in Bush v. Gore in 2000.

Following on the heels of the recent unanimous decision re: broadening police searches, this is extremely disappointing. At least Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David Souter had the good sense to dissent this time.

I've never had an issue with the law, but I'm someone in need and ergo possession of a valid driver's license, and, if I had the misfortune of losing or having stolen my license, I've got a passport I could use in a pinch. These are all things that diminish as the privilege of wealth and ability diminish, i.e. the poorer and/or more housebound one is, the less likely one is to have a photo ID, despite Indiana's making available free photo IDs to the impoverished.


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/83738/

[bluestateguy]

1. They had better make ALL voters show photo ID

And not just people who "don't look right".

[Mountainman]

2. What's to keep someone from getting a fraudulent photo ID?

There is no way to prevent voter fraud this way.

[rurallib]

3. I would guess they would want an 'official' source like driver's

license etc. Getting a fake ID may be more trouble and more expensive than the legit one.

[Kolesar]

4. The RWers pulled down all those B/S "voter fraud" websites when the story collapsed

Media Matters - John Fund's book on voter fraud is a fraud
http://mediamatters.org/items/200411010001

The incredible, disappearing American Center for Voting Rights ...
www.slate.com/id/2166589/

Imagine the National Rifle Association's Web site suddenly disappeared, along with all the data and reports the group had ever posted on gun issues. Imagine Planned Parenthood inexplicably closed its doors one day, without comment from its former leaders. The scenarios are unthinkable, given how established these organizations have become. But even if something did happen to the NRA or Planned Parenthood, no doubt other gun or abortion groups would quickly fill the vacuum and push the ideas they'd pushed for years.

Not so for the American Center for Voting Rights, a group that has literally just disappeared as an organization, and for which it seems no replacement group will rise up. With no notice and little comment, ACVR—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. Hearne won't speak to the press about ACVR's demise. No other group has taken up the "voter fraud" mantra.

The death of ACVR says a lot about the Republican strategy of raising voter fraud as a crisis in American elections. Presidential adviser Karl Rove and his allies, who have been ghostbusting illusory dead and fictional voters since the contested 2000 election, apparently mounted a two-pronged attack. One part of that attack, at the heart of the current Justice Department scandals, involved getting the DoJ and various U.S. attorneys in battleground states to vigorously prosecute cases of voter fraud. That prong has failed. After exhaustive effort, the Department of Justice discovered virtually no polling-place voter fraud, and its efforts to fire the U.S. attorneys in battleground states who did not push the voter-fraud line enough has backfired. Even if Attorney General Gonzales declines to resign his position, his reputation has been irreparably damaged.

[BOHICA06]

5. We want integrity on both ends of the ballot ...

the people voting and the votes counted. State legislatures have the responsibility for both. Indiana has half of the issue fixed, lets see if they can figure out the counting part (with paper trail).