In any constitutional case, he said, the court is faced with a balancing act. Here, he said, the only thing weighing on the state's side of the scale are "phantom claims of fraud," while the ACLU is representing half a dozen citizens who will be barred from casting a ballot.
In his opening statement, Cawley told the court that the General Assembly isn't required to prove there have been actual instances of voter fraud in order to pass a law that would prevent it. "In this day and age, nothing could be more rational" than asking people to bring photo IDs, which have become so prevalent in modern society, to the polls.
Saranac Hale Spencer can be contacted at 215-557-2449 or sspencer@alm.com. Follow her on Twitter @SSpencerTLI.
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