Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Is Dead, for Now

Corbett says he won't appeal a court's ruling striking it down.

CBS Philly reports: “The battle over Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law is apparently over for the rest of the year and maybe for good. After a Commonwealth Court judge decided not reconsider his ruling against the Voter ID law, the Corbett administration has announced it will not appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.”

PennLive adds:

“A great day for voters in Pennsylvania.”

That’s how Vic Walczak, the ACLU attorney who represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law, reacted to the news Thursday that Gov. Tom Corbett will not appeal a judge’s decision in January striking down the law.

He was just as pleased to hear that Corbett and Republican leaders in the legislature do not plan to make adjusting the Voter ID law — which has been bound up in appeals since Corbett signed it in 2012 — a priority for the rest of this year.

USA Today takes the national view:

Corbett’s decision means the law is dead, the third setback for proponents of strict voter ID laws in the space of three weeks.

It has been a rough few weeks for voter ID laws in courts: On April 29, a court found Wisconsin’s voter ID law unconstitutional, and on April 24, a similar law in Arkansas was struck down. The Justice Department is pursuing lawsuits against similar voting requirements in Texas and North Carolina.