As I urged in this Washington Post oped and as discussed in Adam Liptak’s “Sidebar” column yesterday, the Supreme Court has granted cert in the Indiana voter identification case, Crawford. You can find the Court’s order here. I see this as good news, for reasons I discuss in my oped. But I’m sure this makes others in the voting rights community very nervous, out of fear that the Court will make things worse. I’m hoping for the best, and indeed hope that the Court can use this new case to correct some troubling aspects of its brief opinion on the issue of id last year in Purcell v. Gonzalez. Part III of my forthcoming Stanford Law Review article discusses the case and issues in detail.
The Court has expedited briefing in the case, and I expect it will be heard in January or February. UPDATE: Here are some early news stories and commentaries: AP; WSJ law blog; Reuters. More: Dahila Lithwick (audio); Lyle Denniston.