I must say I was not surprised with any of the rulings handed down by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court today. While I an disheartened when it came to the voter ID law and ACT 10 I was never thinking that this court, given its political makeup, would do anything other than how it ruled. That may be a sad indictment of the judiciary, but that is just the plain truth of how I feel.
Today the court addressed two cases that were filed by the League of Women Voters and the Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People when it came to the ID law. In a biting dissent and one that struck to the heart Chief Justice Abrahamson wrote, “Today the court follows not James Madison — for whom Wisconsin’s capital city is named — but rather Jim Crow — the name typically used to refer to repressive laws used to restrict rights, including the right to vote, of African-Americans.”
The fact that the most precious right to vote became a political football to Republicans in Wisconsin is one of the wrongs we all need to address in November at the ballot box. Over and over the same point has been made and will continue to be pressed heading into the fall election. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a long list of offenders when it comes to election fraud in the Badger State.
No Republican was able to stand up in the legislature and produce any court cases, judge’s rulings, or names of those who cast fraudulent votes. If there was such rampant voting abuses why did the attorney general not intervene?
The reason is that the GOP spun voter fraud as a means to undermine Democratic voting, not due to any voter fraud problem that needed a remedy. The lack of any court records or media reporting of such events around the state underscores the lack of credibility for the Republicans with this issue.
Today the court majority fulfilled the wishes of those they need to count on at election time, which is yet another reason for merit selection of judges in Wisconsin, but that is another topic for another day.
But when it comes to the highly controversial voter ID law one thing that all Wisconsin can rely on is that the federal courts will have the last say on this matter. There has already been a ruling from Judge Adelman that this law violates the U.S. Constitution and the federal voting rights act. The full U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago will render a judgment most likely later this year.
It is never the battles that count but who prevails in the war.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 