PA Voter Suppression Update

Today the Pennsylvania supreme court takes up the appeal on the decision that upheld the PA voter suppression ID law.  In my earlier post, I wondered if the court can review the total situation or just what is in the appeal.  I still don't know the answer to that, but one thing I learned (via Meteor Blades at Kos) is in the appeal is reference to the 1869 Patterson decision I wrote about in that earlier post.  He quotes from the brief:

 " Patterson is an anachronism, predating the modern framework of differing levels of scrutiny by more than half a century and based on outright prejudice. Patterson is no guide to a current construction of the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians."

The rest of the brief hits the main issues and responds specifically to elements of the previous decision.  I still wonder if the supreme court can take into consideration how the system is actually working right now, which is to take care of a noisy celebrity's father and make it as hard as possible for non-celebrities to recover their right to vote.

The other piece of information is this oped by a PA Rep which observes that the chief justice, a Republican, has been known to stray from party positions, and in a recent controversial case about redistricting, referred to  "the constitutional commands and restrictions on the process exist precisely as a brake on the most overt of potential excesses and abuse.”  Rep. Waters suggests this directly applies to the voter suppression ID case.

One of these days there's going to be a court that really stands up for this basic right to vote in a big way, with a lopsided decision.  This could be that court.  As the Economist magazine observes, " we ought to recognize it for what it is: deliberate voter suppression, and a betrayal of democracy."