Ballots are stacked and ready as voters wait in line during the 2012 primaries in Milwaukee. An appeals court ruled Monday that a Wisconsin voter ID law, on hold since 2011, could go into effect, but the Supreme Court stepped in on Thursday night to halt the law again as it decides whether to take the case. Jeffrey Phelps/The Associated Press hide caption
itoggle caption Jeffrey Phelps/The Associated Press
Ballots are stacked and ready as voters wait in line during the 2012 primaries in Milwaukee. An appeals court ruled Monday that a Wisconsin voter ID law, on hold since 2011, could go into effect, but the Supreme Court stepped in on Thursday night to halt the law again as it decides whether to take the case.
Jeffrey Phelps/The Associated Press
After an appeals court put Wisconsin's law back into effect, the Supreme Court's liberal wing, plus Justices Kennedy and Roberts, decided to take up the case.
Erin Toner of Milwaukee's WUWM reports:
"This comes after a federal appeals court on Monday upheld the law as constitutional. But tonight's Supreme Court ruling blocks voter ID while it considers whether to accept the case.
"Gov. Walker and Republicans approved the law in 2011, and it's been held up in the courts ever since...
"It's been estimated that as many as 300,000 Wisconsin residents do not have the required IDs for voting. Supporters of the law claim the intent is to prevent voter fraud, but there is no evidence of any fraud in Wisconsin."
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Texas overturned that state's new voter ID law, a ruling the state's attorney general says will be appealed immediately, The Associated Press reports. The Justice Department had argued that the law would have left 600,000 Texans, mostly blacks and Hispanics, without sufficient identification to vote in November, the AP reports.
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