The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court heard arguments September 13 over the GOP-supported voter ID law in the state that would require voters to show a photo ID at the poll, among other items.
The NAACP, which has fought against other state-sponsored voter restriction efforts this year in Texas, Ohio, and Florida, among others, hosted a rally outside of the court to protest the law along with the ACLU and union and church leaders.
"We’re cautiously optimistic that when it’s all over the court will do the right thing," Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said from Philadelphia during the NOW with Alex Wagner show. "The reality is, this year we’ve seen more laws passed by more states, pushing more voters out of the ballot box than in any year in the past 100 years… it turns back the clock."
Six justices—three Republicans and three Democrats—will decide the fate of the law. If they split along party lines, 3-3, a lower court decision that declined to block the law would stand.
Opponents of the law say it could disenfranchise more than a million Pennsylvanians, while supporters call it a necessary step to prevent fraud.
