🚨 MIDTERM BOMBSHELL — Supreme Court Update on Photo ID to Vote

The Missouri Supreme Court is weighing the future of the state’s photo ID requirement for voters, along with new restrictions on voter registration and absentee ballot applications. Judges heard arguments in two separate cases on Wednesday that challenge different parts of a 2022 elections law.One case focused on the law’s photo ID mandate, while the second centered on additional restrictions tied to voter registration and absentee ballot outreach. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the photo ID challenge asked the court to overturn a lower court ruling that upheld the requirement.

A central dispute in the case is whether the plaintiffs have standing to sue.

Judge Mary Russell pressed plaintiff’s attorney Jason Orr to clarify whether the individuals involved were able to obtain government photo IDs and vote

Orr, with the ACLU of Missouri, said the plaintiffs did vote but argued the legal issue is the difficulty they faced in securing the required IDs.

“This court and other courts in fact have held that the ability to vote is not the burden that courts look at,” Orr said. “It’s the abridgement of the right to vote, which can be the obstacles in doing so.”

Solicitor General Lou Capozzi, representing the state, countered that Missouri voters laid the foundation for the photo ID requirement when they approved a constitutional amendment giving lawmakers the power to enact such a law.

Capozzi said the amendment passed with 63% support even after groups like the NAACP argued the requirement was too burdensome.

“Those groups made all the same policy and legal arguments that this court has heard today, including that it is too burdensome to obtain a government issued photo ID,” Capozzi said. “But the people rejected those arguments.”

Capozzi also insisted the plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case.