September 11, 2014

CHICAGO — The American Civil Liberties Union will present oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this Friday, September 12, asking the court to uphold a federal court ruling striking down Wisconsin's voter ID law as unconstitutional and in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

***Attorney available for interviews before and following the arguments***

WHO: Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, will be arguing the case.

WHAT: Oral arguments in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals involving Wisconsin voter ID case.

WHERE: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 219 S. Dearborn Street, in Chicago.

WHEN: 9:30 a.m., Friday, September 12, 2014

Background:
Wisconsin passed a voter ID law in 2011. The ACLU challenged the law on behalf of numerous Wisconsin voters, charging the measure violated the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bans voting practices that have a disparate negative impact on racial minorities. The lawsuit, Frank v. Walker, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

At trial last November, the ACLU presented evidence showing that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters lacked ID; that African-American and Latino voters, who have been subjected to historical and continuing segregation and discrimination in Wisconsin, were far more likely to lack ID and the documents needed to get ID than whites; that there are significant burdens imposed on voters trying to get ID; and that the government lacks strong enough reason to impose these burdens.

Among the plaintiffs is Shirley Brown, an African-American woman in her 70s who was born at home in Louisiana and never had a birth certificate. Brown, who has voted in Wisconsin for decades, was denied an ID because she did not have a birth certificate. DMV rejected a statement from her elementary school attesting to her birth, even though Medicare accepted the statement. Another voter, Eddie Lee Holloway Jr., was unable to get ID because his birth certificate read "Eddie Junior Holloway" instead of "Eddie Lee Holloway Junior."

On April 29, 2014, a federal court struck down the law; the state appealed.

Dale Ho says: "The federal court decisively struck down the voter ID law because it recognized the law placed unjustified burdens on voters, particularly on certain segments of the population such as African-Americans and Latinos, in clear violation of the Constitution's equal protection guarantees and federal voting rights law."

Additional info here: https://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/frank-v-walker-fighting-voter-suppression-wisconsin