Indiana Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
NYT
An Indiana appellate court on Thursday struck down a state law requiring voters to show identification — a law that the United States Supreme Court declared constitutional just last year.
The court said the law violated the Indiana constitution by not treating all voters impartially.
The state legislature passed the voter ID law in 2005, and it was challenged in federal court. The Supreme Court found the law constitutional in April 2008. In July of that year, however, the League of Women Voters brought a new suit in state court.
Thursday’s decision, then, had a sense of déjà vu for some, but with a different outcome. “The court here accepted a lot of the arguments that were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, “so it’s like a second bite of the apple.”
The major difference between Thursday’s state court decision and the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board is that the state court was interpreting the state constitution, while the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution of the United States. Generally, state courts are given the last word in interpreting their own constitutions.
(Continued here.)
NYT
An Indiana appellate court on Thursday struck down a state law requiring voters to show identification — a law that the United States Supreme Court declared constitutional just last year.
The court said the law violated the Indiana constitution by not treating all voters impartially.
The state legislature passed the voter ID law in 2005, and it was challenged in federal court. The Supreme Court found the law constitutional in April 2008. In July of that year, however, the League of Women Voters brought a new suit in state court.
Thursday’s decision, then, had a sense of déjà vu for some, but with a different outcome. “The court here accepted a lot of the arguments that were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, “so it’s like a second bite of the apple.”
The major difference between Thursday’s state court decision and the Supreme Court’s decision in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board is that the state court was interpreting the state constitution, while the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution of the United States. Generally, state courts are given the last word in interpreting their own constitutions.
(Continued here.)
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