Supreme Court Again Declines to Hear Voter ID Case

The Wisconsin Supreme Court won't weigh in on the court challenge to the voter ID law, declining to pick up the case.

Their decision means the case will stay before the Court of Appeals in Waukesha, according to the Journal-Sentinel.

The law in question, approved by the Legislature in 2011, requires voters to show a photo ID at the polls. But there were legal challenges, and two Dane County judges struck down the law. One said the Legislature did not have the power to impose a photo ID requirement on voters, the JS reported, and the other found the photo ID requirement "placed an unreasonable burden on the right to vote."

This refusal—included as a pdf above—marks the third time the Supreme Court has declined to take up the issue. Challenges to the law were raised by Voces de la Frontera (the plaintiff in the appeal the Supreme Court denied Monday), the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. 

Two of the three appeals remain with appellate courts, the League of Women Voters challenge and the Voces de la Frontera case in District 2 out of Waukesha.

Even though the law was struck down, according to the Government Accountability Board, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation continues to offer free photo IDs to Wisconsin voters who tell Department of Motor Vehicles staff that they require a photo ID to vote.