From Texas to North Carolina to Wisconsin, federal judges have recently struck down state laws judges say were designed to keep minorities out of the voting booth.
Now, as The Kansas City Star Reports, it’s Kansas’s turn. Last week a Shawnee County District Judge rejected anoverly restrictive 2013 state voter ID law. The votes of almost 18,000 Kansans who failed to show proper ID in previous elections will now count.
The ruling was a sharp rebuke for Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature that approved the questionable law. But the biggest loser here, says a Star editorial, is Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Since the law’s inception, Kobach has gained national recognition through his dogged efforts to enforce the legislation. Kobach insisted afterward that the judge didn’t have the right to “second-guess the Legislature.” As the Star pointed out, that authority is actually granted to the judicial branch by the constitution.