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| Asian American Groups Dismayed by U.S. Supreme Court Decision Upholding Voter ID Law |
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| By Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund | |
| April 28, 2008 | |
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Today, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a 34-year old national civil rights organization, expressed its dismay with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in two consolidated cases, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, which rejected a constitutional challenge to the Indiana law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification before they can vote. AALDEF, with pro bono co-counsel Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, had filed an amicus ("friend of the court") brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of twenty-five Asian American groups, detailing the problems of restrictive voter ID laws, especially for racial and language minority voters. Margaret Fung, AALDEF executive director, said, “We are disappointed that the Supreme Court failed to recognize the real-life impacts of voter ID laws in deterring Asian American and other minority citizens from exercising their right to vote." AALDEF and the Asian American groups have monitored elections across the country over the last decade and found that voter ID requirements have discriminatory impacts on Asian American voters. AALDEF's exit poll of almost 11,000 Asian American voters in 23 cities in eight states in the 2004 elections revealed how voter ID laws place additional burdens on the right to vote: • In New York, identification is not required to vote, but 23% of all Asian American voters surveyed were asked to show ID. Of those, 69% were not required to do so under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires only a limited group of first-time voters to present ID. In Chinatown, a police officer turned away all Asian American voters who did not have a photo ID with them.Glenn D. Magpantay, AALDEF staff attorney, said, “AALDEF will continue to monitor poll sites to ensure that such requirements are not misapplied and not applied only to Asian American voters.” The following organizations joined AALDEF on the brief: Asian American Bar Association of New York Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, DC Area Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of New Jersey Asian Pacific Islander American Vote Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia Chinatown Voter Education Alliance Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership Korean American Bar Association of New Jersey Korean American League for Civic Action Korean American Resource & Cultural Center Korean American Voters’ Council of NY & NJ National Korean American Service & Education Consortium Organization of Chinese Americans ONE Lowell Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition Providence Youth Student Movement The Sikh Coalition South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow South Asian Youth Action! Vietnamese American Initiative for Development YKASEC – Empowering the Korean American Community AALDEF's amicus brief in the Crawford case can be downloaded here. Comment on This Article
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