Supreme Court Upholds Voter ID Laws

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, which is tougher than many other voter ID laws, rejecting claims that it was unconstitutional or akin to a poll tax, and ruling that it was a rational way of preventing vote fraud.  I earlier explained why the legal challenges to voter ID laws are based on bogus arguments.  The case did not break down along ideological lines: while all the moderate and conservative justices voted to uphold the law, so did liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced the court’s ruling.  Law professor Jonathan Adler thinks that Stevens voted to uphold the law based on his knowledge of the rampant vote fraud in Chicago that occurred while he worked there as a lawyer and judge prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court.