FYI, from a Los Angeles County Bar Ass'n newsletter I receive each day:
Daily EBriefs of October 26, 2010
The following caselaw summaries are provided as a courtesy to Los Angeles County Bar Association members by the Metropolitan News-Enterprise http://www.metnews.com. Summaries from the past 90 days are archived and searchable on the LACBA Web site at http://www.lacba.org/dailyebriefs.
NINTH U.S. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
...
-Individual Rights-
National Voter Registration Act supersedes Arizona law requiring prospective voters to present documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote because the state law conflicts with the NVRA’s text, structure, and purpose. District court did not err in ruling that portion of Arizona law requiring registered voters to present proof of identification to cast a ballot at the polls did not violate the Voting Rights Act where plaintiffs presented no evidence showing that Latinos’ ability to obtain or possess identification for voting purposes resulted in them having less opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.
Arizona law was not an invalid poll tax under the Twenty-Fourth Amendment because the requirement to obtain and present identification was neither a fee imposed on voters as a prerequisite for voting nor a burden imposed on voters who refused to pay a poll tax. Arizona law was not an invalid poll tax under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because any payment associated with obtaining the documents required under the photo identification provision was related to the state’s legitimate interest in assessing the eligibility and qualifications of voters.
Gonzalez v. Arizona - filed October 26, 2010
Cite as 08-17094
Full text http://www.metnews.com/sos.cgi?1010%2F08-17094
Mark Scarberry
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law