at USA Today, “Mississippi has joined the growing number of states adopting tougher voter ID laws, a trend that promises to fuel an intense battle over how such laws may affect voter turnout in the 2012 elections. “It’s boiling over,” said Jennie Bowser, a senior election policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “People on both sides of the aisle are very protective of elections. They regard it as the cornerstone of American democracy. ”
and this: Democrats have called for a hearing on whether the state laws are constitutional and violate the spirit of the Voting Rights Act. They are considering introducing legislation to nullify the impact of the state laws, but acknowledge such an effort would almost certainly be doomed in the Republican-controlled House. “We don’t delude ourselves,” said Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House minority whip. “I’m not sure we’ll be successful with legislation, but legislation is certainly an option.”
Carefully note that Democrats are not calling a hearing to say that photo identification laws actually violate the Voting Rights Act, just the spirit of the Act. This is a result of previous litigation in states that has repeatedly resulted in Court’s ruling that the laws don’t normally, much less automatically, violate the Voting Right Act. This shift explains why Democrats are calling for Federal legislation to expressly nullify the wide variety of state identification laws enacted over the past decade. Why? Because the Supreme Court has ruled that photo id laws are indeed constitutional and acceptable for election administration purposes; therefore, the only remaining avenue for Democrats to overrule the majority of Americans in favor of such laws and force a wholesale federal ban down the throats of all states.
As the enforcement agency of the Executive Branch, the DOJ can only stand in the way of photo ID laws for so long. Their job is to follow and enforce laws (even ones they don’t like) and not to manipulate the law for political ends. The only recourse for Democrats is to pass legislation at the state and federal level reversing this trend. Unfortunately, the mere fact they bring up this issue may now prompt Republicans to consider federal laws requiring identification at the polls.