In Worrisome Decision, 11th Circuit Panel on 2-1 Vote Rejects Challenge to Alabama Voter Identification Law Without Allowing a Trial

You can find the opinion in Greater Birmingham Industries v. Alabama at this link.

This opinion is very troubling because the majority held it was appropriate to grant summary judgment to the state of Alabama despite evidence that at least some of the legislators who passed this law did so with racially discriminatory intent, despite the uncontroverted evidence that African-American voters are less likely than white voters to possess the right kinds of identification accepted for voting in Alabama, and despite the lack of any evidence in the record of a problem with the kind of voter fraud (impersonation fraud) that a voter id law can stop. And in this case, unlike the Crawford case in which the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s strict voter id law, plaintiffs came forward with evidence of how the Alabama law was particularly burdensome on some state voters.

This case should have been allowed to go to trial to fully develop the evidence.

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