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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether Indiana’s two-year-old law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is constitutional.
Justices accepted the pair of combined cases Monday and issued an order this morning. The court was considering about 60 potential cases, including two others from Indiana: Gilles v. Blanchard, et al., which involves religious speech on the public ground at Vincennes University; and Deb Mayer v. Monroe Community School Corp. involving a teacher fired for comments made during class about the Iraq war.
Seventeen have been granted so far and other Hoosier cases currently under consideration are not included on the list, though more orders are expected in the next week.
The combined voter ID cases are William Crawford, et al. v. Marion County Election Board, et al. and Indiana Democratic Party, et al. v. Todd Rokita. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana asked justices to consider whether the state’s law violates the First or 14th Amendments. In April, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declined a rehearing en banc of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, et al., which challenged the law that took effect July 2005. The 7th Circuit had previously affirmed a District judge’s ruling that the law wasn’t unconstitutional. Rep. William Crawford, D-Indianapolis, sued Secretary of State Todd Rokita and the Marion County Election Board, and the ACLU-Indiana had sued on behalf of those who could be impacted by the law, possibly to the extent of not voting.
All briefs are due by the end of the year on the voter ID challenge.
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