The Wisconsin Department of Justice plans to appeal the rulings of two Dane County judges who have issued injunctions against a law requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls.
In a statement last Thursday, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said DOJ has filed two separate challenges to rulings recently handed down by the judges. In one ruling, Circuit Judge David Flanagan granted a temporary injunction against the voter ID law. Less than a week later, Circuit Judge Richard Niess issued a permanent injunction against the law.
“We have made these appellate filings far ahead of the timelines contemplated for appeal, so these matters may be reviewed and concluded in anticipation of the [April 3] election,” Van Hollen said in the statement.
Flanagan ruled in favor of the Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Voces de la Frontera in the first case, which was filed in Waukesha. Niess then permanently blocked the law from being implemented after the League of Women Voters challenged the law in the District IV Court of Appeals, located in Madison.
Flanagan in his ruling said he did not find the “irreparable harm” needed to stay the injunction, only saying the difficulty posed to state officials in stopping the enforcement of the photo ID requirement before the April 3 election amounted to an “administrative inconvenience.”
Due to the statewide importance of the issue, both cases are likely to be sent to the state Supreme Court.
“Both of these cases include novel constitutional challenges to the voter ID law,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “Due to the important statewide legal and policy issues at stake, defendants are suggesting in their filings today that certification of both cases to the Supreme Court would be appropriate.”
Cullen Werwie, spokesperson for Gov. Scott Walker, said in an email to The Badger Herald he is confident the law will be implemented despite the injunction.
He said the judges are standing in the way of “common sense” reforms to protect the electoral process.
“It’s a shame activist Dane County judges continue to stand in the way of common sense,” Werwie said. “Requiring photo identification to vote is common sense – we require it to get a library card, cold medicine and public assistance.”
Werwie said Walker “looks forward” to implementing reforms he said were designed to protect the electoral process and increase citizens’ confidence in the results of our elections. He said ensuring the integrity of elections is one of the core functions of government.
Attorney Richard Saks, who is representing the NAACP’s Milwaukee branch in the case, expressed confidence Van Hollen’s appeals will not overturn Flanagan’s decisions.
He said the voter ID law would disenfranchise minority, elderly and disabled voters, which he called some of the most vulnerable sections of society.
“We don’t think we’re going to get overturned. We think that the law proposes substantial burdens on the ranks of many voters throughout the state,” Saks said. “We think it runs contrary to the spirit and the letter of the Wisconsin constitution, which provides explicitly the right to vote for all Wisconsin citizens.”
