[EL] The Obama Administration's Risky Voter ID Move Threatens the Voting Rights Act

[Sam Bagenstos]

I think the crucial points are these:

1.  As Rick recognizes, this is the right thing to do.  Given the standards that govern Section 5 and the evidence before it, DOJ pretty much had to object.

2.  Any objection could set up a constitutional challenge with fast-track review to the Supreme Court.  If DOJ were so in fear of that risk that it never objected even when the jurisdiction failed o carry its burden under the law, it would be in effect preemptively declaring he statute unconstitutional itself.  There was never any realistic way the constitutional challenge to Section 5 could be deferred beyond the 2012 Term of the Supreme Court, so it would be especially odd for DOJ to decline to object to an objectionable submission simply to head off such a challenge. 

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 30, 2011, at 2:55 PM, Michael McDonald <mmcdon at gmu.edu> wrote:

> An alternative view might be encapsulated by putting the words "to Enforce"
> after the word "Threatens."
> 
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor, George Mason University
> Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
> 
>                             Mailing address:
> (o) 703-993-4191             George Mason University
> (f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs
> mmcdon at gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4
> http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Hasen,
> Richard
> Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 1:45 PM
> To: law-election at uci.edu; law-legislation at uci.edu
> Subject: [EL] The Obama Administration's Risky Voter ID Move Threatens the
> Voting Rights Act
> 
> http://mobile.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2011/12/the
> _obama_administration_s_risky_voter_id_move_threatens_the_voting_rights_act.
> html
> 
> 
> Rick Hasen
> 
> Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse typos. 
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