Justices May Seek Compromise in Voter ID Case

Robert Barnes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/09/AR2008010901743.html?nav=rss_politics

The Supreme Court appeared unmoved yesterday by arguments that an Indiana law requiring voters to present photo identification imposes an unconstitutional burden. Some justices, however, appeared to search for a middle ground on the divisive and partisan political issue.

Experts on voting rights see the legal battle over Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation voter identification law as the most starkly partisan case to reach the court since Bush v. Gore decided the presidential election in 2000.

And the court's questioning during an hour-long oral argument broke quickly along its own ideological divide. But the justice most often in recent years to play the decisive role -- Anthony M. Kennedy -- made it clear he did not share the challengers' view of the burden that producing a photo ID imposes.

(snip)
If the objective of government should be to make it easier for "America to vote, all Americans," she (Ruth Bader Ginsburg ) and Justice Stephen G. Breyer wondered why states did not simply issue photo identification when registering voters.