Wisconsin Supreme Court won't take up voter ID case

The Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to take up appeals to the state's new voter ID law Monday, but an advocate against the law remained hopeful that they would take up the case in the future.

The law, which requires residents to show photo ID in order to vote, was blocked last month by two separate state appeals courts in Dane County. The two judges requested that the state's highest court take up the appeals from the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, with a trial behind held Monday in one of those cases over the law's constitutionality.

But neither group received an explanation as to why the court would not take up an appeal in separate orders, failing to get four out of the seven justices required to take up a case.

Despite the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision, League of Women Voters Executive Director Andrea Kaminski expressed her organization's content with a lower court ruling the law unconstitutional.

"As far as we're concerned, we had a victory at the lowest court level," Kaminski told The Raw Story. "We've been happy to leave it at that. It's the state, which is defending this law, that keeps trying to push up the law. So far, only one court has ruled the law as unconstitutional. We're happy with that."

Kaminski did believe that the case would end up in the Supreme Court, but was uncertain as to whether it would occur before Governor Scott Walker's (R) recall election in June. A new Daily Kos/Public Policy poll shows Walker leading all his possible Democratic challengers, with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett his closest rival trailing 50 to 46 percent.

"That's the million dollar question is the timeline," Kaminski said. "We don't know. It is possible that the appeals court will put it on an expedited hearing schedule, and they'll try to get it done before the recall election appeals. We really don't know."