State Supreme Court Unlikely To Rule On Voter ID Before Summer

A former state Supreme Court justice says it could be late June or early July before the high court rules on cases challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law. That could affect the timing of when the Legislature returns to Madison.

There’s no telling for sure how the court will rule on voter ID, but key justices sent signals in oral arguments that they might have problems with this law. If changes are needed, Gov. Scott Walker says he’d like to call the legislature back into special session to make them.

Former Supreme Court justice and Marquette Law Professor Janine Geske, however, says it could be a few months before the Legislature has any kind of decision to work with.

“I believe we’re going to see it either the last week in June or the first couple weeks in July. That’s the end of the term for the court, but I suspect there’s a good chance that there will be multiple opinions,” Geske said. “That takes time to write. I know that they’re backlogged a little bit on their opinions.”

A separate case challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law is also pending in a federal court. Geske won’t venture a guess on when that decision might come.

“Federal judges are on their own timetables, and he can issue the opinion whenever he wishes it,” she said.

The longer courts wait to issue opinions, the closer a potential special session gets to Election Day. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald was asked whether the timing of the decisions would affect whether he’d call his members back to Madison this year.

“It’s a good question, you know it’s hard to really judge that without weighing all the factors related to either a re-election or who comes through primaries, stuff like that, that could have a direct effect on it, but absolutely timing would be part of a decision that you’d try to make,” Fitzgerald said.

Speaker Robin Vos’ office said a special or extraordinary session can be called at any time. Republicans passed voter ID in 2011, but it was only ever used in one low-turnout election before it was blocked by the courts.