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Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (9085)	7/13/2006 2:16:40 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 14758

Federal Judge Rules Voter ID Card Law in Georgia Is Illegal By BRENDA GOODMAN - July 13, 2006 nytimes.com ATLANTA, July 12 — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Georgia law requiring voters to present government-issued ID cards violated the United States Constitution by discriminating against minorities, the poor and the elderly. If the preliminary injunction imposed by Judge Harold L. Murphy of the United States District Court in Rome, Ga., is not overturned on appeal, it may keep the law from being enforced until this case is settled. Last week, a state judge temporarily blocked the law, ruling that it violated voter protections in the State Constitution. On Wednesday, the State Supreme Court denied an emergency motion by Gov. Sonny Perdue to overturn the ruling. The Voter ID law, passed in March 2005 by the Legislature, which is Republican controlled, originally required voters to have drivers’ licenses or other government identification or to buy a special state card. In October, Judge Murphy struck down the law, saying the requirement to buy the special card amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. The Legislature rewrote the law to make the cards free. Judge Murphy decided the law still ran afoul of the federal Constitution. He said it violated the First and 14th Amendments because the severe burden on the right to vote discriminates against disadvantaged groups, those least likely to have a photo ID. “This was all about trying to suppress the vote at the 2006 elections, as was last year’s bill,” said Emmet J. Bondurant, the lawyer who argued the case on behalf of voters’ rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. * * *