Opinion ID: 1630936
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: SB 1014's Photo-ID Requirement is Subject to Strict Scrutiny.

Text: In light of the substantial burden that the Photo-ID Requirement places upon the right to vote, the statute is subject to strict scrutiny. This is consistent with the past decisions of Missouri courts, which have uniformly applied strict scrutiny to statutes impinging upon the right to vote. [23] Missouri election-law cases in which strict scrutiny was not applied simply recognize, as does this Court today, that reasonable regulation of the voting process and of registration procedures is necessary to protect the right to vote. [24] So long as those regulations do not impose a heavy burden on the right to vote, they will be upheld provided they are rationally related to a legitimate state interest. If the regulations place a heavy burden on the right to vote, as here, our constitution requires that they be subject to strict scrutiny. Appellants' argument that this Court should not apply strict scrutiny but should apply a flexible test for examining voting restrictions such as that announced by the United States Supreme Court in Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992), also is not persuasive. Here, the issue is constitutionality under Missouri's Constitution, not under the United States Constitution. Even under Burdick 's flexible test, however, a court will weigh the character and magnitude of the asserted injury to the rights protected . . . against the precise interests put forward by the State as justifications for the burden imposed by its rule, taking into consideration the extent to which those interests make it necessary to burden the plaintiff's rights. Id. at 434. When those rights are subject to reasonable nondiscriminatory restrictions, rational basis scrutiny applies. Id. When those rights are subject to severe restrictions, the Supreme Court has directed that strict scrutiny applies. Id. Because, here, the restrictions on the right to vote are severe, strict scrutiny would also adhere under the federal constitutional provision. Several federal courts that have evaluated these types of burdens on the right to vote since Burdick are in accord that strict scrutiny must apply to direct burdens on the right to vote. See Republican Party of Arkansas v. Faulkner County, Arkansas, 49 F.3d 1289, 1298-99 (8th Cir. 1995) (applying strict scrutiny to Arkansas requirement that political parties conduct and pay for primary elections because such provisions had the effect of forcing many voters who wish[ed] to vote in the Republican primary to vote either in the Democratic primary or not at all, thereby burdening the ability of persons to exercise their right to vote for the person or persons of their choice.). [25] Applying strict scrutiny, the issues are whether the burden that SB 1014's Photo-ID Requirement places upon Missourians' fundamental right to vote serves a compelling state interest and whether it is necessary and narrowly tailored to accomplish that interest. Komosa, 939 S.W.2d at 482 .