A pair of rulings by Dane County judges has declared the voter ID law unconstitutional, and
the GOP is finding out the hard way that it can no longer railroad legislation through the Capitol like has
been for the past year.

Last year, before the first wave of summer recalls, Republicans hurriedly passed a bill requiring voters
to present a government issued photo ID at the polls, despite widespread concern that this would
exclude minority voters from the democratic process. In the words of Gov.
Scott Walker’s spokesman Cullen Werwie, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, the law was passed with the intent to implement “common-sense
reforms,” and it “increases citizens’ confidence in the results of our elections.” 

Critics pointed out that the
law undermined the voting rights of minorities, the elderly, students and the homeless. As reported by US News, the American Civil Liberties Union compared it – rightfully so, if you ask me – to Jim Crow laws that excluded black voters before the Civil Rights
movement of the 1960s. Despite the controversial nature of this law and considerable dissent,
Republicans were able to push it through Congress, and Walker gave it a stamp of approval.

Two lawsuits, one brought forward by the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera and the
Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the other by the
League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, led to the ruling that the bill is unconstitutional. 

Dane County Circuit Court Judge David
Flanagan temporarily blocked the bill last Tuesday, and on Monday Circuit Judge Richard Niess ruled
it “unconstitutional to the extent they serve as a condition for voting at the polls.” He also permanently
blocked any attempts to enforce the provisions of the bill. Niess’ injunction against the voter ID law is particularly eloquent – it reads like a classic of American political philosophy. He concludes his decision writing with “Voter fraud is no more poisonous to our democracy than voter suppression. Indeed, they are two heads on the same monster. … A government that undermines the right to vote … sows the seeds for its own demise as a democratic institution.”

Somehow, Walker maintains that he’s confident that this ID law will stand. Attorney General J.B.
Van Hollen says he will appeal, and, according to the WSJ, Walker lackey Cullen Werwie said, “It’s a shame activist Dane County
judges continue to stand in the way of common sense.” In light of the fact that the law has been blocked
by two separate judges, this sounds like wishful thinking.

Werwie says some abrasive things in his unflinching and perpetual defense of the abrasive
things Scott Walker says, but his complaint that “activist” judges stand in the way of “common sense” is most likely to take the cake the most ludicrous thing he’s said all year. What he seems to be
referring to is the concept of checks and balances – also known as separation of powers – that stabilizes
American democracy, Wisconsin included. The fact that the judicial system is capable of overruling
unconstitutional legislation protects citizens from undemocratic laws like the voter ID bill. Maybe
Werwie is still convinced that Wisconsin government consists of Walker, Republicans and those-liberals-who-left-to-Illinois-for-a-while-but-came-back, but technically it consists of the executive, legislative and
judiciary branches.

This isn’t the first time the Republican Party has run into trouble with the judicial branch. The
redistricting maps they pushed through the Legislature with this voter ID law have been in and out of court
since summer. What’s more, a slimmer majority in the Legislature, due to the first wave of the recall elections,
has prevented GOP politicians from passing legislation this fall – a case in point being the bill that would
have streamlined the environmental permitting process for iron mines.

Republicans might be frustrated
that they can’t push legislation through over any and all objections, and lately they’ve been framing
attempts to block GOP legislation as “politics over progress,” but a balance of power on Capitol Square is
healthy for Wisconsin. Walker, his sidekick Cullen Werwie and the legislators who passed a
law as blatantly undemocratic as the voter ID one will just have to accept that checks and balances are
part of the game.

Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in math and physics.