Summary
The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed a trial court judgment enjoining enforcement of Missouri Senate Bill 1014's photographic-identification requirement for voting. The court held that the requirement violated the Missouri Constitution's equal protection and voting-rights provisions because it imposed significant financial and practical burdens on qualified voters and was not narrowly tailored to prevent voter impersonation fraud.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Missouri Senate Bill 1014's photographic-identification requirement substantially burdens the fundamental right to vote.
- Whether the photo-identification requirement survives strict scrutiny under the Missouri Constitution's equal-protection clause and protections for the right of suffrage.
- Whether the transitional provisional-ballot provisions are severable from the permanent photo-identification requirement.
- Whether the constitutional challenge to the permanent photo-identification requirement was ripe for adjudication.
Holdings
- The photo-identification requirement imposes a heavy and substantial burden on the fundamental right of qualified Missouri citizens to vote because voters lacking the specified identification must incur financial, time, transportation, and bureaucratic costs to obtain it.
- A voting regulation that imposes a heavy burden on the right to vote is subject to strict scrutiny under the Missouri Constitution.
- The photo-identification requirement violated Missouri's equal-protection clause and constitutional guarantee of the right to vote because, although preventing voter fraud is a compelling state interest, the requirement was not necessary or narrowly tailored to prevent in-person voter-impersonation fraud.
- The transitional provisional-ballot provisions were not severable from the permanent photo-identification provisions and therefore had to be invalidated with them.
- The challenge to the photo-identification requirement was ripe because the statute was in effect and immediately required voters lacking identification to undertake costly and burdensome steps to preserve their future ability to vote.
Key quotations
“This Court agrees that SB 1014's Photo-ID Requirement violates Missouri's equal protection clause, Mo. Const. art. I, sec. 2, and Missouri's constitutional guarantee of the right of its qualified, registered citizens to vote.” (203 S.W.3d at 205)
“The Photo-ID Requirement of SB 1014 represents a heavy and substantial burden on Missourians' free exercise of the right of suffrage.” (203 S.W.3d at 213)
“These facts compel the conclusion that the Photo-ID Requirement is not "necessary to accomplish a compelling state interest."” (203 S.W.3d at 213)
Factual background
Senate Bill 1014 required voters casting regular ballots to present specified, unexpired state- or federally issued photographic identification. The record showed that approximately 3 to 4 percent of Missouri citizens, including roughly 169,000 to 240,000 registered voters, lacked the required identification and would need to obtain birth certificates, passports, or other documentation, often at monetary and substantial practical cost. The evidence also showed no reported instance of voter-impersonation fraud in Missouri after the 2002 identification procedures adopted in response to the Help America Vote Act, while the new requirement would not address absentee-ballot or registration fraud.
Procedural history
The trial court found that Senate Bill 1014's photo-identification requirement imposed substantial burdens on qualified and registered Missouri voters, including financial, logistical, and disability-related burdens, and declared the requirement unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the judgment enjoining enforcement, holding that the requirement violated Missouri's equal-protection clause and constitutional protections for the right to vote.