Nine HBCU students challenge Tennessee’s voter-ID law

23rd March 2015   ·   0 Comments

More than two years after voting-rights activists launched a nationwide effort to address efforts to undermine the Voting Rights Act, a new movement is under way to protect the voting rights of Tennessee residents who believe their rights are being violated but the state’s voter-ID law. The Root reported recently that nine HBCU students from Fisk and Tennessee have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Ten­nessee’s voter-ID law.

The suit was filed a coalition of student activists who call themselves the Nashville Student Organizing Committee in February 2014. The students were not allowed to vote last year because they used college ID cards to identify themselves. They are being represented by the Washington, DC-based Fair Elections Legal Network and the Nashville-based law firm of Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison as part of a legal campaign to restore student voting rights in Tennessee.

With the GOP using voter-suppression laws to successfully regain control of Capitol Hill, the NSOC case marks an unprecedented turing point in ongoing efforts to challenge these changes to voting laws that have disproportionately impacted low-income voters and communities of color.

The NSOC lawsuit is believed to be the first student-led legal initiative of its kind and is a case justice and voting-rights advocates are watching closely. The Root reports that some in the legal community “view it as Supreme Court-worthy and a savvy political maneuver on part of Black youth activists that could have far-reaching implications.” It added that the lawsuit may have a chance to advance because the Middle Tennessee federal district court “is dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents, including Chief Judge Kevin Sharp who was recently appointed by President Barack Obama.

The student-led challenge to voter-suppression law has gained momentum as the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” and the signing of the Voting Rights Act.

“Studies are showing that the voter-ID laws are suppressing youth turnout,” DePaul University political science professor Molly Andolina told The Root. Andolina anticipates the emergence of a growing Black youth movement born out of frustration over issues such as police violence and voter ID that could influence the 2016 elections.

“To the extent that #Black­LivesMatter converges with other potentially suppressive factors such as voter-ID laws, along with reductions in early and Sunday voting, it will likely mobilize voters,” Christina Rivers, another political science professor at DePaul, told The Root.

At the moment, said Doug Johnston, a Barrett Johnston lawyer on the case who has also worked aggressively against the state’s voter-ID law since its passage in 2011, the current suit doesn’t seek “to dismantle the whole voter-ID law.” However, it will seek to reverse what his clients view as violations of their constitutional rights under the 14th and 26th amendments. “The basis of this lawsuit is really very simple,” Johnston told The Root. “It’s an attempt to have students treated in the same manner as similarly situated individuals.”

To illustrate his point, Johnston pointed to identification cards for state university faculty and staff, which are perfectly legal to use at the polls—and yet student IDs are not accepted: “The law’s denial of the use of student IDs when exactly the same ID is OK for others is unconstitutional,” he told The Root.

In its complaint, NSOC argues that Tennessee’s strict voter-ID law, which only allows for a limited number of photo IDs, “intentionally discriminates against out-of-state college and university students, and has the purpose and effect of denying and abridging the right to vote on account of age.”

At the heart of the case is a dispute over out-of-state student rights; the nine plaintiffs, ages 18 and 19, are originally from states such as California, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. All of the students are legal residents of Nashville, holding official state-issued student IDs. Lawyers argue that the current Tennessee voter-ID laws are too restrictive: Even though out-of-state students can apply for free identification licenses at Driver Service Centers, the process is too burdensome and effectively prevents them from voting.

The complaint filed on behalf of NSOC resonates with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law which listed Tennessee among 15 states with the most restrictive voter-ID laws in the U.S. Additionally, a recent federal Government Accountability Office report found that turnout among Tennessee voters ages 18 to 23 had dropped by more than four percentage points in recent election cycles since the law was enacted.

Tennessee House Republican Caucus press secretary Cade Cothren dismissed the notion that student voting rights have been violated and worries that “frankly, student IDs are easier to fake.”

“If a student only has a student ID, they are eligible for a free ID from their local DMV,” he told The Root.

But when asked for factual evidence or data showing occurrences of actual student-ID fraud, Cothren said, “Beyond anecdotal evidence, there is not. These statutes were passed to prevent fraud from occurring in the first place.”

“For four years, the Tennessee General Assembly has rejected every attempt to add college student IDs to the voter-ID list, systematically shutting young voters out of the political process just as they become eligible to vote,” said Jon Sherman, a staff attorney for the Fair Elections Legal Network. “This case will demonstrate that when politicians tinker with a voter-ID list to pick their preferred voters, they violate the Consti­tution and the most basic aspirations of our democracy.”

During the 50th anniversary commemoration of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama earlier this month, President Obama said that more needs to do to protect the right to vote and urged Americans to use the ballot as a tool to promote social justice and positive change. He also challenged the legal community and others to remain vigilant about challenging voter-suppression laws that undermine the Voting Rights Act.

This article originally published in the March 23, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.