Voter ID UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Big Surprise.

My conservative friend called and alerted me to the just released ruling saying that he disagrees with it, but thought I'd like to know. I asked him why he would still back something that looks pretty much to be unconstitutional, but he grumbled that he didn't want to get into it, suggesting ID's are required for other things so it isn't too much to ask of voters. 

Oh, but it is:  

jsonline: A Dane County judge permanently enjoined the state's new voter ID law on Monday - the second judge in a week to block the requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls.

"A government that undermines the very foundation of its existence - the people's inherent, pre-constitutional right to vote - imperils its legitimacy as a government by the people, for the people, and especially of the people," said the eight-page opinion by Dane County Judge Richard Niess. "It sows the seeds for its own demise as a democratic institution. This is precisely what 2011 Wisconsin Act 23 does with its photo ID mandates."

Niess' ruling goes further than the one issued by another judge last week because it permanently halts the law. 

And Niess didn't sign a recall Walker petition either, so now what can be said about the judges decision? Scott Walker spokesperson Cullen Werwie gave his now cartoonish and perfectly acceptable conservative answer again:

"It's a shame activist Dane County judges continue to stand in the way of common sense," his statement said.

Niess' decision actually dealt with that very cliche: 

"Because the Wisconsin Constitution is the people's bulwark against government overreach, courts must reject every opportunity to contort its language into implicitly providing what it explicitly does not: license to enact laws that, for any citizen, cancel or substantially burden a constitutionally guaranteed sacred right, such as the right to vote," he wrote. "Otherwise we stray into judicial activism at its most insidious. Our constitution is a line in the sand drawn by the sovereign authority in this state - the people of Wisconsin - that the Legislature, governor, and the courts may not cross, particularly under the all-too-convenient guise of strained construction and attenuated inference."

The decision was easy when you consider, unlike other states, our constitution clearly defines our voting rights:

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin … argued the state constitution allows the Legislature to exclude felons and mentally incompetent people from voting, but not other classes of people. Niess agreed with the group that the new law creates a new category of people who cannot vote - those without ID - and thus violates the state constitution.

There are two challenges in federal court in Milwaukee. One was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the other; the League of United Latin American Citizens of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council and others.

The decision came the same day the U.S. Department of Justice blocked Texas' voter ID law.