The Wisconsin Supreme Court has declined to take up challenges to the state’s voter ID law until an appeals court hears the cases, meaning questions about the law will not be resolved until well after the November elections.
Two separate Dane County circuit judges have ruled against the law in Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP v. Scott Walker and League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Network, Inc. v. Scott Walker. The high court declined to take up and consolidate the cases because it said not all the briefs had been filed in one of the cases.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued the following statement in response to the court’s decision:
“The Voter ID law protects the integrity of our elections. Injunctions entered by circuit court judges, acting alone, have already kept this law from being applied in several important elections over the past year. I am very disappointed that the Supreme Court has failed to act by denying the motions to consolidate these actions, bypass the Court of Appeals, and stay the injunctions against the Voter ID law. The result is that the injunctions against the Voter ID law remain in effect and will, in all likelihood, be in effect for the upcoming November elections. Despite this setback, I continue to believe that the Voter ID law is constitutional and I will continue the battle to have the law upheld.”
The voter ID law is also being challenged in two federal lawsuits.