Thread by @benwikler

BREAKING: GOP-appointed judges break 3-year silence, rule against voting rights in Wisconsin just 127 days from November 3. Roll back early voting, expand residency restrictions, block ballot access via email.

Organizing more critical than ever—help us: wisdems.org/deadline

The actual decision is here. The judges—two appointed by Reagan and one by W—conclude that "Early voting is not a fundamental right."

But cutting down early voting means longer lines in ways that all unevenly on voters—as we saw in WI on April 7.

electionlawblog.org/wp-content/upl…

The judges take the Supreme Court's redistricting decision and use it to argue that, essentially, lawmakers can change *any* election law for purposes of partisan advantage, as long as they're not explicitly talking about racial (or other barred) discrimination while they do it.

The truth is that because one party has so relentlessly weaponized racism, voting is now highly predicted by race—and so it's possible to suppress the vote of African-American under the guise of suppressing Democrats. This opens the door to making that legal.

One of the few bright spots in this ruling: the judges find that there's no rational basis for preventing the use of expired student ID cards as voter IDs for currently-enrolled students. That will especially help students who aren't on campus to get new IDs printed.

This ruling is just starting to be reported on. The first write-up, by @rickhasen, is here: electionlawblog.org/?p=112659

Here's the first article about this ruling: "Appeals court limits Wisconsin early voting to 2 weeks before election, stops voters from receiving ballots via email, fax" by @patrickdmarley

jsonline.com/story/news/pol…