By now, it seems, it is plain to all that the supposed voter fraud on which is based the various voter ID laws passed in a number of states is little more than fiction. Legislatures dominated by one party (Republican so far) conjure a supposed problem -- voter fraud -- and pass a law supposedly intended to eliminate this problem but actually to depress the voting participation of likely Democratic voters.
Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago had this to say about the gullibility of some courts (in this case a panel of his own) to accept blindly the fictional findings of the legislature:
The panel would construct a fact-free cocoon in which to lodge the federal judiciary. As there is no evidence that voter impersonation fraud is a problem, how can the fact that a legislature says it’s a problem turn it into one? If the Wisconsin legislature says witches are a problem, shall Wisconsin courts be permitted to conduct witch trials?
But Judge Posner can hardly be considered a partisan certainly not a Democratic partisan. He was appointed by President Reagan. He wrote the majority opinion in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, in which the 7th Circuit upheld Indiana's voter ID law, a decision later affirmed by the Supreme Court. He is the most widely cited legal scholar of the 20th century, according the the Journal of Legal Studies. He is the author of a number of books including the following: Economic Analysis of Law (now in its 9th edition; I own the 3d), Reflections on Judging, Law, Pragmatism and Democracy, and Law and Literature being only a few.
Voter ID laws are here to stay. The Supreme Court has already blessed them and, as Sixth Circuit Judge Ronald Gilman once remarked in a case of mine, "there is no way," the presently-composed Court will revise or reconsider that decision.
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