Big Ideas in Politics: NYU's Brennan Center for Justice on the Indiana Voter ID Case

From the Brennan Center Website:

The Indiana voter ID case is the most important voting rights case since Bush v. Gore. Due to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 9, 2008, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board will determine which American citizens are able to exercise their right to vote and which Americans are not. The Indiana law is the most restrictive ID law in America and will exclude many eligible voters from participating in our democratic process.

The Brennan Center filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit challenging the constitutionality of an Indiana law requiring citizens to present photo ID as a condition of voting. In its amicus brief, the Brennan Center argued that impersonation fraud is an extremely unlikely and unsubstantiated occurrence that can be prevented without requiring a photo ID, and that the Indiana law fails to address more common forms of voter fraud. The Center's brief marshalled the best evidence on individual voter fraud and catalogued the practices in other states for preventing voter fraud without resorting to photo ID. On January 4, 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in an opinion authored by Judge Posner, upheld the lower court decision and found that the state law did not unduly burden the right to vote. Plaintiffs were denied a rehearing en banc on April 5, 2007.