The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has vacated a lower court ruling that effectively upheld the state’s new voter ID law — and sent the case back to the lower court for further review. We’re still sorting out the implications.
To be more specific, opponents of the new voter ID law had sought a preliminary injunction to block the law and the lower court denied that request. The Supreme Court is now telling the lower court to revisit that denial — and giving the lower court judge the standards to use in deciding whether to grant an injunction.
Primarily at issue in the case is whether the state’s process of providing IDs to would-be voters is sufficiently robust to ensure that anyone seeking an ID can get one. In other words, does any difficulty in obtaining a state-issued ID amount to disenfranchisement?
More soon …
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.