Friday, May 25, 2012
4:43 PM
State files appeal in voter ID lawsuit
The state Department of Justice filed a brief with the District IV Court of Appeals late this afternoon appealing one of two decisions keeping the state's voter ID law on hold.
Dane Co. Judge Richard Niess had previously ruled that the law was unconstitutional -- after the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit challenging the act -- and placed a permanent injunction on its enforcement.
Attorneys for the state, however, argued in today's filing that the League -- and the group's president, Melanie Ramey, in particular -- does not have standing in the case and that the law does not violate the state constitution under Article III.
"Nowhere in the language of the Wisconsin Constitution is a limitation placed upon the Legislature’s ability to craft requirements that qualified electors prove their identities prior to voting," the brief reads. "The Legislature has always possessed that power, and voters have always been required to establish their identity in order to vote. The photo identification requirement of Act 23 is merely the most recent exercise of that power."
Another Dane Co. judge, David Flanagan, placed a temporary injunction on the law in a separate lawsuit. He is not scheduled to rule on that case until the conclusion of the briefing schedule next month.
-- By Andy Szal
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