By: Marc Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
U.S. Supreme Court Decision Sanctions "Modern Day Poll Tax"
This election season has been full of stories about bowling scores, bar-room boilermakers and pick-up basketball. But, last week a little-noticed U.S. Supreme Court ruling may have jeopardized Americans' precious right to vote. In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the most restrictive voter identification law in the country and failed, I think, in its duty to protect the voting rights of all Americans. In its 6-3 decision, the Court sanctioned the practice of requiring Indiana voters to present government-issued photo identification in order to vote.
Poll taxes, which were used to disenfranchise Southern black voters by requiring them to pay a tax in order to vote, were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966. This current ID requirement appears to be nothing more than a thinly disguised modern-day poll tax that places a burden upon many citizens
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