Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
As the Bard would say, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Pennsylvania." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today, rather than ruling on that state's voter ID law as the state's highest court, instead remanded the case back to the Republican trial court judge who ignored the evidence at trial and ordered him to take further evidence in the case. Unbelievable! Pennsylvania voter ID law sent back to lower court:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday called for more hearings on whether a new Republican-backed voter ID law can be implemented this fall without disenfranchising voters who currently lack the needed photo identification.
The decision (.pdf) drew sharp rebukes from two of the six justices. They said it was already clear that some legitimate voters could not secure the needed ID in time for the election.
“I have heard enough about the Commonwealth’s scramble to meet this law’s requirements,” wrote Justice Debra McCloskey Todd. “There is ample evidence of disarray in the record, and I would not allow chaos to begat chaos.”
But the majority returned the case to Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, who had earlier ruled that the state could get the needed photo identification to voters who now lack it. It said Simpson should look again at the facts, and report back by Oct. 2.
“If the Commonwealth Court is not still convinced in its predictive judgment that there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the Commonwealth’s implementation of a voter identification requirement for purposes of the upcoming election, that court is obliged to enter a preliminary injunction,” said the court’s unsigned opinion.
A state Supreme Court passes the buck to a lower court judge. . . what is going on here?
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