Rulings on two key voting rights cases could reshape how Americans nationwide cast ballots in federal elections. The more high-profile of the two pending rulings involves an Alabama county that is pushing back against federal oversight of its election procedures.
MADISON -- A state appeals court on Thursday overturned a Dane County judge's decision that found Wisconsin's voter ID law violated the state constitution, but the ID requirement remains blocked because of a ruling in a separate case.
The NorCal Tea Party Patriots filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, according to Reuters, arguing its constitutional rights were violated when the IRS targeted its application for nonprofit status. The lawsuit seeks class-action status, meaning it could become the major suit between conservative groups and the IRS.
A Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting voter fraud, True the Vote has filed suit in federal court against the IRS, asking the court to grant its tax-exempt status (three years after applying) and seeking damages for unlawful actions taken by the IRS against the organization.
In an article for PJ Media, election expert Hans von Spakovsky reviews the American Civil Rights Union's lawsuits to clean up voter rolls in Mississippi:
"The ACRU is stepping into the breach left by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department.Under Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez (now nominated to head the U.S. Department of Labor), the division has refused to enforce Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter law. Section 8 requires states to remove ineligible voters from their registration lists."
WASHINGTON D.C. (April 26, 2013) -- On behalf of the American Civil Rights Union, three former U.S. Justice Department attorneys filed lawsuits today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi seeking an injunction to compel election officials in Jefferson Davis County and Walthall County to clean up their voter rolls.
Like hundreds around the nation, these two counties have more active registered voters than there are voting age-eligible residents, according to data from the U.S. Census and state voter registration offices.
The Supreme Court on Monday, March 18, hears another case challenging the right of a state to put in place new voting requirements.
At stake in the case--Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc.-- is whether or not an Arizona law requiring Arizonans to show proof of citizenship at the voting booth will be upheld. The ACRU filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Arizona.
Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a question not touched for nearly 50 years - namely, the question of whether parts of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 still stand the test of constitutionality, and specifically a section that has long plagued states' rights advocates.
Unfortunately for liberals, who view the VRA as one of their landmark legislative achievements, the answer to that question may well be "no," as many court analysts seem to have viewed the oral arguments in the case as either an unadulterated disaster for the government, or at least as a strong sign that a majority of the court is willing to consider striking down at least part of the act.
Tennessee's Supreme Court was asked Wednesday to decide whether the state's voter ID law deprives people of the right to vote or if it's a necessary safeguard to prevent election fraud. And in a related issue, the court must determine whether a city-issued library card with a photo can be used as identification to vote.
New ACRU Senior Fellow J. Christian Adams helped file a lawsuit today on behalf of TruetheVote challenging the conduct of election officials in the defeat of Rep. Allen West in the 18th Florida congressional district last November.
Commonwealth Court has blocked a bid by a group that is challenging the state's Voter ID Law to get the driver's license information of every Pennsylvanian. The Washington, D.C.-based Advancement Project has no legal right to that data, which includes birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers, the court ruled.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld the state's new voter identification requirement, but it also agreed to let voters in Memphis use new library cards at the polls -- splitting the difference on the divisive issue less than two weeks before the Nov. 6 election.
Attorneys representing two Memphis residents whose votes were not
counted in the August primary because they lacked a government-issued
photo ID asked a three-judge Appeals Court panel on Thursday to throw
out the state's voter ID law.
Click here for full article.
U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman has ordered Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to remove the recently included and highly contested citizenship question from the November ballots. This formal written order followed a preliminary injunction issued from the bench.
Click here for full article.
WASHINGTON -- A panel of three federal judges upheld a South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification, but delayed enforcement until next year, in a decision announced Wednesday, less than a month before this year's presidential election.
Click here for full article.
A judge ruled Tuesday that a
Pennsylvania law requiring voters in the swing state to produce photo
identification at the polls cannot take effect for the November
election.
Click here for full article.
FARGO, N.D.
- Ten football players at North Dakota State pleaded guilty Tuesday
to misdemeanor election fraud and were sentenced to community service
for faking signatures on ballot measure petitions they were hired to
collect.
Click here for full article.
LANSING - The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit Monday to stop Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson from asking voters if they are U.S. citizens when they fill out ballot applications in the November election.
Click here for full article.
In a 4-2 ruling issued on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr., who upheld the new voter ID law in August, to file a supplemental opinion proving that the new law won't disenfranchise some voters.
Click here for full article.
WASHINGTON -- A three-judge federal panel on Thursday knocked down the Lone Star State's new photo voter ID law, which the court said illegally suppresses minority voters.
Click here for full article.
COLUMBUS - A federal judge in Ohio granted a request from the Obama campaign to give all voters in the swing state the option of casting their ballot in person during the three days before Election Day.
Click here for full article.
The Minnesota Supreme Court decided Monday that a referendum approved by the state legislature to amend the state constitution to require voter ID will also be on the ballot in November. The League of Women Voters had tried to convince the court that the people of Minnesota should not be allowed to decide this issue.
Click here for full article.
Washington -- South Carolina officials headed to federal court on Monday to defend a controversial new voter identification law, dismissing suggestions the requirement would deny tens of thousands of people, many of them minorities, access to the ballot.
Click here for full article.
HARRISBURG - A Commonwealth Court judge denied a bid by civil rights
groups to block the new voter identification law from taking effect,
delivering a first-round victory to Gov. Corbett and legislative
Republicans who pushed the measure through this spring saying it was
needed to prevent voter fraud.
Click here for full article.
South Carolina's voter ID law will go on trial before a panel of judges in a federal court in D.C. from Aug. 27 until Aug. 31, according to court documents filed on Aug. 7.
Click here for full article.
HARRISBURG -- Critics of the new voter ID requirement rallied in advance of opening arguments on Wednesday in a legal challenge, while the secretary of the commonwealth defended the law and said officials will comply with a separate federal review.
Click here for full article.
ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight relates in a Washington Times column how the ACLU is telling the Minnesota Supreme Court that Gopher State voters would not understand a voter ID ballot measure, and in Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed three bills tightening voter ID while signing several others.
Click here for full column.
St. Paul -- The battle over the language of the Voter ID amendment went in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court on July 17.
Click here for full article.
MADISON, Wis. -- Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he will appeal a Madison judge's ruling blocking Wisconsin's new voter identification law.
Click here for full article.
The state of Texas and the Justice Department
gave opening statements Monday in a trial over Texas' new voter ID law,
setting the stage for a legal battle over the federal Voting Rights
Act.
Click here for full article.
TALLAHASSEE - A federal judge has refused to stop Florida from removing potentially non-U.S. citizens from its voter rolls. The U.S. Department of Justice sued to halt the purge.
Click here for full article.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a DFLer (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) who has campaigned against the photo ID requirement for voting passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, said Thursday he will not defend the language of the proposed constitutional amendment in a court challenge that names him as the defendant.
Click here for full article.
Judicial Watch has sued the Department of
Justice, saying it has not turned over public records related to its
decision to block the state's photo ID law.
Click here for full article.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward with his plan to purge the voter rolls in his state of ineligible voters despite a Justice Department order to halt.
Click here for full article and video.
The American Civil Liberties Union wants the Minnesota Supreme Court to
keep a proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to present
photo IDs off the November ballot.
Click here for full article.
PHILADELPHIA - The ACLU announced that its lawsuit over Pennsylvania's new Voter ID law has a trial date of July 25.
Click here for full article.
Jefferson City -- A state constitutional amendment that would clear the way for a photo identification requirement at Missouri polls will not appear on this year's ballot, the secretary of state's office said.
Click here for full article.
Amid harsh words from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's
office and a panel of federal judges, the chances dimmed of implementing
the new voter identification law in time for November's elections.
Click here for full article.
Madison - A pair of appeals court rulings make clear the state's new voter ID law will remain suspended through the May and June recall elections.
Click here for full article.
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Arizona may require voters to show identification at the polls, a ruling likely to add fuel to the fiery debate about voting rights in a presidential election year.
Click here for full article.
The Minnesota chapter of Common Cause and the American Civil Liberties Union are preparing a lawsuit against a constitutional amendment ballot measure that would establish a photo ID requirement for voting.
Click here for full article.
Dealt a setback in court, a Missouri House committee acted quickly Tuesday to embrace new wording for a 2012 ballot measure that would allow a photo identification mandate to be imposed upon voters in future elections.
Prosecutors in South Bend, Ind., filed charges Monday against four St. Joseph County Democratic officials and deputies as part of a multiple-felony case involving the alleged forging of Democratic presidential primary petitions in the 2008 election, which put then-candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the Indiana ballot.
This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published January 9, 2012 on The Washington Examiner website.
Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement told U.S. Supreme Court justices Monday that lower federal courts cannot redraw state-approved election district maps unless they can point to concrete "identifying specific statutory or constitutional violations."
Instead, Clement said during oral arguments on Perry v. Perez, two federal district judges have nullified the will of the people in Texas. The evident frustration of at least some of the Supreme Court justices suggests they agree with Gov. Rick Perry that state sovereignty must be restored.
Clement represented Perry and the state of Texas in an appeal of lower court decisions throwing out new congressional and state legislative election districts earlier this year.
Continue reading “Texas Case Suggests Court May Overhaul Voting Rights”.
In 2005, the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation, signed by the Governor, to counter vote fraud by generally requiring those voting in person at the polls to identify themselves with a government issued photo ID, such as a driver's license or a passport. The Indiana state Democratic Party, the Marion County Democratic Party, two elected Democrat officials, and several political interest groups filed suit alleging that this Indiana Voter ID law is unconstitutional because requiring such an ID imposes a severe burden on the right to vote.