"The Supreme Court now has a chance to set something right in the voting-rights area."

Says Linda Greenhouse, pressuring the Court to take the case about the Wisconsin voter-ID law � which was upheld by a 7th Circuit panel. The vote to rehear the case by the full 7th Circuit court failed 5 to 5, with the eminent Judge Posner dissenting at length.

What seemed most significant to Judge Posner was what he called the �changed political culture in the United States� in the years since the Supreme Court took a benign view of voter ID [in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board]. �All the strict photo ID states are politically conservative,� he wrote, illustrating the point with a map and a �political makeup� list of the nine strictest states, all with Republican legislatures. The claim that photo ID was necessary to deter or catch voter-impersonation fraud was, Judge Posner wrote, �a mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters likely to vote for the political party that does not control the state government.�

He added: �As there is no evidence that voter-impersonation fraud is a problem, how can the fact that a legislature says it�s a problem turn it into one? If the Wisconsin Legislature says witches are a problem, shall Wisconsin courts be permitted to conduct witch trials?�

The Wisconsin Attorney General Brad D. Schimel, in a brief opposing Supreme Court review, said: "It is not this court�s job to referee a debate between the Seventh Circuit panel and Judge Posner," which Greenhouse admits is a good line, even as she bashes the brief as "weak on its facts, to put it charitably."