ID Required!!

On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law. In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that the law, which requires citizens to present a valid government-issued ID when they vote, does not violate their First or Fourteenth Amendment. The court believes that the state has a “valid interest” in trying to prevent voter fraud from affecting elections. However, challengers of this law argued that it unfairly places a burden on voters who are old, a minority or poor because they are less likely to have a driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification. Democrats, who have vigorously opposed the law since people in these groups tend to belong to their party, feel that the real motivation behind the law is not to prevent voter fraud, which is practically non-existent, but rather to give the republican voter and party an advantage. The court, however, felt that the people opposed to the law failed to produce a single individual who had been deeply affected by the requirements.

The court also believes, as Justice Scalia said, that “The law should be upheld because its overall burden is minimal and justified.” The voter identification law allows those who do not have proper identification to place a provisional ballot, and then appear at their county courthouse within 10 days to show identification. Not only that, the law also makes provisions for people in nursing homes. Although there is a federal law imposing some ID requirements, this case reaffirmed the idea of federalism as the Supreme Court left it up to the States to decide whether they want to impose a more rigorous identification law.