Monday, April 28, 2008

Feature: Doorways

The very reason.....all Americans need to pay attention to what is happening at the level of the Supreme Court...(a nation, a democracy, ruled by law?????)

Supreme Court Throws voting rights under the bus... http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/apr/28/supreme-court-throws-voting-rights-under-bus

By SEDER

The Supreme Court has ruled to uphold Indiana'a voter ID laws. These laws have the effect of making it more difficult for the elderly and the poor to vote. However, they have the "benefit" of ensuring that that our elections will never suffer the voting fraud like we have no record of taking place in the 20th century!

That's right-- make it harder to vote in order to promote society's interest in preventing something that literally never happens.

In dissent, Justices Souter and Ginsburg:

Indiana’s "Voter ID Law" threatens to impose nontrivial
burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the State’s
citizens, [] and a significant percentage of those individuals are
likely to be deterred from voting.
The statute is
unconstitutional under the balancing standard of Burdick v. Takushi,
504 U. S. 428 (1992): a State may not burden the right to vote merely
by invoking abstract interests, be they legitimate, [] 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.

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