Two Voter ID Cases Headed to Supreme Court, as Two Fed Cases Remain in Deliberation

Updated - [Note: Mal Contends has cause to suspect that this site was hijacked.]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court announced today that the Wisconsin law forbidding registered, constitutional voters from voting without first presenting an narrowly crafted range of photo voter IDs under Wisconsin Act 23 has been have been accepted for oral arguments.

The Court granted two separate petitions for the state cases, one of which, Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Walker was due to be heard before a Wisconsin appellate court panel (District II) on December 17, 2013 challenging the permanent injunction order issued in July 2012 by Judge David T. Flanagan.

The other case League of Women Voters of Wisconsin v. Walker (under a permanent injunction issued on March 12, 2012 by Judge Richard G. Niess after a trial was reversed by a Wisconsin appellate court panel (District IV) filed May 30, 2013).

The two federal cases, consolidated in the two-week federal trial that ended in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last Friday are Frank v. Walker and League of United Latin American Citizens of Wisconsin v. Deininger in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and remain under deliberation.

The two Wisconsin state cases are ordered to be heard together at an indeterminate date, and heard simultaneously in the "interest of judicial economy."

The voter ID law will remained enjoined under the order of two state courts, and the federal judge may and likely will, enter another temporary injunction, on motions filed in March 2013 from the plaintiffs in Frank and League moving for injunctions, as well in the future while Judge Lynn Adelman deliberates his court's order and opinion.

I cannot imagine Judge Adelman's office writing what could be a potentially landmark opinion not just under the 14th and 24 Amendments, but also under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, until Adelman researched this case as though his life depended on it.

I don't care how brilliant Adelman and his clerk are, and they are; I would not expect an opinion until it's warm again in Wisconsin.

It would indeed be not at all surprising if the cases reach the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District, and then the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, and not be ruled upon until June 2016, a presidential election year.