Bagenstos, CERL Collaborate on Amicus Brief
Collaborating with political scientists from Washington University Law’s Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL), law professor Samuel Bagenstos has filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court that argues, using social science research, that an Indiana voter identification law is unconstitutional.
The brief was filed on behalf of five political scientists who study elections and the voting process, including CERL director Andrew Martin, professor of law and of political science, and Delia Bailey, CERL post-doctoral fellow.
In the case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court will address the constitutionality of Indiana’s law requiring that voters present a government-issued photographic identification at the polls. The case was brought by Indiana voters and candidates who are claiming that the 2005 law violates the 1st and 14th amendments.
Bagenstos’ brief argues that political science research nationwide shows that stringent voter identification laws suppress voter turnout, fall more heavily on poorer and less educated voters (and accordingly racial minorities), and are subject to arbitrary and discriminatory application at the polls.
“The empirical research indicates that the requirement of photo IDs not only decreases voter participation, but it also has the largest negative effect of all of the voter identification requirements on the probability that an individual will vote,” Bagenstos notes. “Restrictive voter identification laws also have particularly significant effects on people with less education and lower incomes.”
One of the major studies on voter identification laws cited in the brief was conducted by Bailey, along with California Institute of Technology professors Michael Alvarez and Jonathan Katz. Their study uses empirical research to document the effect of voter identification requirements on registered voters in all the states in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and in the 2002 and 2006 midterm elections. Their study, The Effect of Voter IdentificationLaws on Turnout (Oct. 2007), analyzes data specifically from the 2000-2006 Current Population Survey Voter Supplements, from the United States Census Bureau.
Other studies cited in the brief indicate that the elderly and racial minorities are less likely to have the required government-issued voter identification, thus affecting their ability to vote.
