Monday, June 17, 2013

Scalia Blows it On AZ Voter ID Strike Down

Normally Judge Scalia and I are simpatico.  Today, however, he really blew it.  The Supreme Court struck down the voter ID law in Arizona today.  Scalia sided with the liberal majority in striking down the law, while Justices Thomas and Alito showed some common sense and actual discernment in the minority.  More from CBS Washington:

The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona’s voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal “Motor Voter” voter registration law.
Federal law “precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court’s majority.
The court was considering the legality of Arizona’s requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal “motor voter” registration law. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which doesn’t require such documentation, trumps Arizona’s Proposition 200 passed in 2004.

But won't this pretty much open the door to more voter fraud, ala what went on in Ohio last year?  Yep:
  Tom Caso, a professor at Chapman University School of Law in California, said the decision “opened the door” to noncitizen voting. “The court’s decision ignores the clear dictates of the Constitution in favor of bureaucratic red tape,” Caso said.

Kathy McKee, who led the push to get the proposition on the ballot in Arizona, said the ruling makes it harder to combat voter fraud, including fraud carried out by people who don’t have permission to be in the country. “To even suggest that the honor system works, really?” McKee said. “You have to prove who you are just to use your charge card now.”


Besides, the Constitution puts the states in charge of managing the elections.  Thomas and Alito saw that, but I guess Scalia was blinded by a cheeseburger or something:

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the court’s ruling.
The Constitution “authorizes states to determine the qualifications of voters in federal elections, which necessarily includes the related power to determine whether those qualifications are satisfied,” Thomas said in his dissent.
 

Once again, the Supreme Court gives more power to an ever overreaching and dictatorial federal government.  Shameful.