# I Pit the ID-demanding GOP vote-suppressors (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943 "2012-06-12T19:15:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 412
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8221 "2015-07-27T17:18:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Speaker of the House Jim Wright Denied Texas Voter ID Card.](https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/03/1252733/-90-Year-Old-Legendary-Speaker-of-the-House-Jim-Wright-Denied-Texas-Voter-ID-Card) This breaking news just in, from 2013. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8222 "2015-07-27T17:55:33Z")
Well there you go. Two years later and he _still_ hasn’t gotten a card! Edit: [On the other hand, it’s justification for tighter laws](http://www.dallasnews.com/obituary-headlines/20150506-former-u.s.-house-speaker-jim-wright-dead-at-92.ece). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8223 "2015-07-27T18:38:03Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This breaking news just in, from 2013. You realize **BrainGlutton** probably posted that way back when it was new, but it just took this long for the SDMB hamsters to get caught up with there backlog? 🙂 Can Jim Wright’s estate cast his vote for him? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8224 "2015-07-29T02:13:57Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This breaking news just in, from 2013. I’m trying to grasp what ideation motivated this response. Yes, Wright got his ID, and probably quickly with a “Sorry sir”, but would Black Welfare Mama have been as fortunate? Probably not, as you’d admit if you were capable of frank speech. Instead you focus on the date, as though 2013 were some time in the distant past when slavery hadn’t been abolished, or the Founding Fathers were still ruminating. No, this was the result of recent Texas law, the very sort of craven vote suppression that Texas adopts so gleefully as SCOTUS discards the Voting Rights Act with a 5-4 vote. > [@](#): > > After spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, the Democratic Party icon said he is troubled by what he’s seeing happen under the state’s new voter ID law. > … the photo identifications he had — a Texas driver’s license that expired in 2010 and a TCU faculty ID — do not satisfy requirements of the voter ID law, enacted in 2011 by the Legislature. DPS officials concurred. But now. Presented with the specific example you can’t otherwise debunk you make believe that 2013 is some ancient date that should be ignored. Buffoonery. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8225 "2015-07-29T04:31:37Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > No, this was the result of recent Texas law, the very sort of craven vote suppression that Texas adopts so gleefully as SCOTUS discards the Voting Rights Act with a 5-4 vote. What difference does it make if the vote was 5-4? _Obergefell_ was decided 5-4; should we disregard that ruling as well? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8226 "2015-07-29T05:53:15Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > What difference does it make if the vote was 5-4? 😕 😕 I’m just lamenting that the Court is packed with 3 or 4 right-wing assholes – Scalia, Thomas, etc. This is the Pit. If you think Scalia and Thomas are good Justices then you’re stupid or an asshole or both. If even one of these assholes were replaced with someone worthy, the Voting Rights Act wouldn’t have been overturned. Do you think 9-0 and 5-4 verdicts are equivalent? Equally “worthy”? > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > _Obergefell_ was decided 5-4; should we disregard that ruling as well? Many MANY cases these days are 4-4 votes with Kennedy casting the sole relevant vote! _Obergefell_ was another in this long list, with Kennedy siding with Obergefell. What’s your point? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8227 "2015-07-29T06:25:49Z")
His point, as reluctant as I am to concede that he may have one, is that there appears to be a fundamental disconnect at play if you wish to disparage 5-4 decisions only when the outcome favors the forces of evil. I concede that he probably wouldn’t phrase it that way. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8228 "2015-07-29T06:56:54Z")
The Court includes the “centrist” Kennedy, four lovely progressive thinkers, a mediocre right-wing Chief Justice, and three flaming assholes. Kennedy literally decides a large majority of close cases. Most of the 5-4 decisions split into worthy justices versus unqualified assholes. Naturally rational Americans like the 5-4 decisions where Kennedy votes with the “liberals” and hate the decisions where Kennedy joins the unqualified assholes. I don’t see the confusion. It’s not the “5” in the 5-4 decisions that’s annoying. It’s that the 5 include 3 or 4 assholes; with a competent good-spirited Court these 5-4’s would go the other way. HTH. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8229 "2015-07-29T12:59:34Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’m trying to grasp what ideation motivated this response. Yes, Wright got his ID, and probably quickly with a “Sorry sir”, but would Black Welfare Mama have been as fortunate? Probably not, as you’d admit if you were capable of frank speech. The infrastructure includes opportunities to correct problems as they are reported. This is available to everyone, regardless of their gender, race, or status as parents or recipients of public assistance. So I would say: probably so, and you’d admit that if you were capable of honest admissions in debate. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8230 "2015-07-29T13:22:36Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The infrastructure includes opportunities to correct problems as they are reported. This is available to everyone, regardless of their gender, race, or status as parents or recipients of public assistance. > > So I would say: probably so, and you’d admit that if you were capable of honest admissions in debate. And the Sheriff of Waller County Texas says there is no racism there. It’s disingenuous - and frankly assholish - for you to demand honest admissions from others immediately after dismissing reality so completely one sentence before. It is bias like this that makes your legal contributions on the board suspect to the point of uselessness. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8231 "2015-07-29T20:11:24Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > If even one of these assholes were replaced with someone worthy, the Voting Rights Act wouldn’t have been overturned. You’re right, this is the Pit, but it’s also the SDMB, so some actual facts would be nice. The Voting Rights Act has not been overturned, no matter how many times you repeat it. As for the rest of it, if you divide the justices into “worthies” and “assholes” based on your personal feelings about how their decisions comport with your political ideology, that’s just sad. The justices are sworn to uphold the Constitution, not any political position. Many millions of Americans disagree with the majority in _Obergefell_, but I haven’t read of anyone calling the justices in the majority assholes for their decision. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8232 "2015-07-29T20:24:00Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > You’re right, this is the Pit, but it’s also the SDMB, so some actual facts would be nice. Yes, wouldn’t they now? > [@](#): > > The Voting Rights Act has not been overturned, no matter how many times you repeat it. [Only the guts of it.](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html?_r=0) Damn, boy. > [@](#): > > The justices are sworn to uphold the Constitution, not any political position. So of course they always do? Somehow non-unanimous votes are prevalent anyway. > [@](#): > > Many millions of Americans disagree with the majority in _Obergefell_, but I haven’t read of anyone calling the justices in the majority assholes for their decision. There have been quite a few religious nuts calling them far worse than that. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8233 "2015-07-29T20:57:20Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Only the guts of it.](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html?_r=0) Damn, boy. I am not your boy. Did you read the decision, or do you let the NY Times tell you how to think? I’d bet you haven’t read the decision. What part of the VRA was ruled unconstitutional? What was the reasoning? What has changed since the VRA was enacted? Do you know? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8234 "2015-07-29T21:44:20Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > I am not your boy. If you’re going to act like one, expect to be called one. > [@](#): > > Did you read the decision, or do you let the NY Times tell you how to think? Any actual news link would have done fine. > [@](#): > > What part of the VRA was ruled unconstitutional? What was the reasoning? What has changed since the VRA was enacted? Do you know? Do your own homework, boy. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8235 "2015-07-29T22:16:00Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Do your own homework. So you don’t know, as expected. Septimus probably doesn’t know, either, otherwise she wouldn’t keep repeating that the VRA was “overturned”. Maybe you should stick to being wrong about football. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8236 "2015-08-05T20:39:03Z")
Small victory for the good guys: > [@Reuters](#): > > [A U.S. appeals court struck down a Texas law on Wednesday requiring voters to show authorized identification before casting ballots, saying the measure violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act through its “discriminatory effects.”](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/05/us-usa-vote-texas-idUSKCN0QA2A920150805) ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8237 "2015-08-06T13:58:53Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Small victory for the good guys: Odd that our astute legal analysts here did not anticipate this. Perhaps childlike clapping and dancing inhibits reasoned legal considerations. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8238 "2015-08-06T14:54:04Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Odd that our astute legal analysts here did not anticipate this. Perhaps childlike clapping and dancing inhibits reasoned legal considerations. When I saw the panel drawn for the Fifth Circuit, I anticipated this outcome. If you review prior discussions of my predictions on the case, I explicitly reserved _finality_ – that is, a ruling at the Supreme Court – or an circuit ruling that is not appealed. ---
**Author:** ![Squooshed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Squooshed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squooshed)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8239 "2015-08-27T02:02:22Z")
Perhaps this is an amazing coincidence, but I’m not generous enough of spirit to believe that. Not long after passing a harsh voter ID law, Alabama is now in the process of closing all but four DMV offices in the state. [Link here](http://www.waff.com/story/29869389/alea-to-begin-closing-drivers-license-offices-4-to-remain-open). But it’s just a minor inconvenience to get a valid driver’s license before voting, right? Even if the nearest DMV is located hours away? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/8240 "2015-08-27T02:55:27Z")
> [@Squooshed](#): > > Perhaps this is an amazing coincidence, but I’m not generous enough of spirit to believe that. Not long after passing a harsh voter ID law, Alabama is now in the process of closing all but four DMV offices in the state. [Link here](http://www.waff.com/story/29869389/alea-to-begin-closing-drivers-license-offices-4-to-remain-open). > > But it’s just a minor inconvenience to get a valid driver’s license before voting, right? Even if the nearest DMV is located hours away? Wassamatter? Sassy ho and thugboy don’t know how to make their Internet talk Kenyan? > [@](#): > > For those needing to renew existing licenses, you are able to do so online. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=411) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=413)