The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette offers this editorial, which begins: “Though two federal appeals court judges upheld Indiana’s Draconian voter ID law, the legal fight continues — and a recent academic paper shows why the court’s ruling should be reviewed.”
The case in question is the Seventh Circuit’s opinion in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and the recent academic paper is my draft paper, The Untimely Death of Bush v. Gore. Part III of that paper criticizes the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Arizona voter i.d. case of Purcell v. Gonzales and Judge Posner’s majority opinion in the Crawford case.
A petition for rehearing (see also the state’s answer) has been pending in the Seventh Circuit for some time. It might be taking so long because the judges are still debating the question whether the entire 7th Circuit should hear the case. More likely, one or more judges are working on a statement dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc.
The Posner opinion is a very troublesome one, but this may not be the best case for voter identification opponents to try to take to the Supreme Court.