(WORT)–A recent court ruling has breathed new life into a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s voter identification law, considered by many to be one of the most restrictive in the nation.
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday April 12th that a U.S. district judge must consider whether Wisconsin’s law applies to eligible voters who face “daunting obstacles” to obtaining valid IDs.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty filed a federal lawsuit back in 2011 when the Wisconsin law went into effect. Although the law was ultimately upheld as constitutional, the ACLU has continued to argue in court that the state should consider a number of exceptions that would make it easier for people, particularly the historically disenfranchised, to vote.
WORT’s Darien Lamen spoke with Sean Young, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project who has been leading the challenge against the Wisconsin law. Young talks about what accommodations the ACLU is seeking for Wisconsin voters, the racist history of voter suppression, and whether we can expect any changes to go into effect in time for the November elections.