The Supreme Court Accepts to Review Crawford v. Marion County Election Board

The Supreme Court has accepted to review the 7th Circuit January 2007 decision, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 472 F.3d 949. The petition for writ of certiorari is here. Unlike the Missouri Supreme Court, the 7th Circuit upheld a statute making it mandatory to present an ID card when voting.

This is the text of the Indiana statute, IC 3-5-2-40.5,"Proof of identification":

Sec. 40.5. "Proof of identification" refers to a document that satisfies all the following:

(1) The document shows the name of the individual to whom the document was issued, and the name conforms to the name in the individual's voter registration record.

(2) The document shows a photograph of the individual to whom the document was issued.

(3) The document includes an expiration date, and the document:
(A) is not expired; or
(B) expired after the date of the most recent general election.

(4) The document was issued by the United States or the state of Indiana. As added by P.L.109-2005, SEC.1.

As civil liberties advocates have pointed out, this type of law discriminates against the poorest Americans. They cannot afford the cost of a ID card, and thus cannot vote.

It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court uses strict scrutiny. In a 1992 case, Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992), a case cited by the 7th Circuit, the Supreme Court refused to apply the strict scrutiny standard to a case challenging the constitutionality of a Hawaii law requiring casting, tabulation, and publication of write in votes.