In late December, I wrote this Slate commentary in which I suggested that South Carolina might leapfrog over some of the other suits challenging the constitutionality of section 5 and get right to the Supreme Court.  The urgency would be a desire to use the voter i.d. law in the November 2012 elections.

On January 11, South Carolina announced it had hired Paul Clement on the team, strongly signalling a Supreme Court challenge.  And since then we’ve heard nothing.  In the meantime, Texas has brought its own suit on DOJ’s failure to preclear its voter i.d. law (the issue is still under consideration at DOJ).  As I explained, the Texas lawsuit seeks to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act under the constitutional avoidance doctrine, rather than make a head-on argument that section 5 is no longer constitutional.  This leaves room for South Carolina to make the front attack.  But so far it hasn’t.

Why?

I wonder if there are some political considerations against mounting the attack.  Does Gov. Haley not want to do this?  She sure seemed to be applauding when Rick Perry said that South Carolina was “at war” with the federal government over the voter i.d. issue and other issues.

Stay tuned.