Elections-Voter ID Laws-Standing

Plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of their complaint challenging the constitutionality of voter ID laws. Plaintiffs alleged that the challenged laws unconstitutionally burdened the right to vote and violated equal protection. Following a bench trial, the trial court ruled that plaintiffs lacked standing, and even if they had standing, the challenged laws were constitutional.  

Where plaintiffs failed to show that the challenged laws actually infringed or threatened to infringe upon their ability to vote, any alleged harms were speculative and thus could not support standing. As a result, the trial court erred in ruling on the merits of the case due to plaintiffs’ lack of standing to establish a justiciable controversy.   

Judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part.  

Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. State (MLW No. 84545/Case No. SC100965 – 24 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Powell, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Cole County, Beetem, J. (Gillian R. Wilcox and Jason Orr, Kansas City; Kristin M. Mulvey and Jonathan D. Schmid, St. Louis; and Denise D. Lieberman, St. Louis for appellants) (Louis J. Capozzi III, J. Michael Patton and Madeline S. Landsdell, St. Louis for respondent)