In the News: Voter ID Laws

Over the last couple of weeks, the social justice and voting rights communities have been abuzz with the news that Judge Richard A. Posner, who famously held in 2007 that an Indiana voter ID law did not impose an undue burden on voters, has changed his mind. Laws requiring voters to show a valid photo identification at the polls are widely, though not universally, thought to disproportionately burden poor, elderly, and minority voters, thereby depressing voter turnout for those groups. Though Judge Posner’s opinion was affirmed on appeal to the United States Supreme Court, voter identification requirements remain very much a live issue, with the U.S. Department of Justice currently suing multiple states over their version of voter ID laws.

–Sally Larsen, MJR&L Associate Editor