The Supreme Court Sucks Part 2

Poll tax receipt, 1896

Two weeks ago, I pointed out that the court had said that a three-part lethal injection cocktail was constitutional, further ensconcing the barbaric practice of capital punishment in our country.

What are they up to this week? Well, yesterday the court decided by a 6-3 margin that Indiana's law requiring voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls was constitutional.

The result, the Times suggests, will be more such laws around the country.

For the vast majority of us with drivers' licenses and passports, this is no biggie. But for the very poor and elderly without them: biggie. It is admittedly not the same as a poll tax, but it has the same intent and effect - limiting voting rights for those with little power in our society. What better way to keep them on the bottom?

Lest we think of the justices as some lofty group above politics, it should be noted that all six of the justices who voted in favor of Indiana's law had been appointed by Republican presidents, and the court's two Democratic appointees both dissented. (Only David Souter, long derided by conservatives as a "bad pick" by George H.W. Bush, crossed the court's party lines by dissenting).

Of all the long-lasting damage that George W. Bush has done to our country, little will have longer-lasting effects than his appointments of Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.