U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Voting Rights
BLITZER: To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now: a U.S. Supreme Court with a potentially major impact on the November election. We're going to show you what the justices decided and which party could feel the most fallout at the ballot box. Also, Howard Dean's deadline for Democrats. He says when the last primary is over in early June, it's time for one of the candidates to drop out. But what if they don't necessarily heed his call? Plus, inside a new DNC ad targeting John McCain using his own words against him, but is it fair? All of this coming up, plus the best political team on television. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. A very important new U.S. Supreme Court ruling on voting rights could throw a curveball into the November election. The high court today upheld Indiana's strict law requiring voters to show a picture I.D. before they can cast their ballots. Let's go to our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena. She's watching this story for us. It could have a significant impact, especially in November. Kelli, what happened?</s>KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, now that the Supreme Court has upheld Indiana's law, it does give the green light to other states to pass similar legislation, just in time for the November election.</s>ARENA (voice-over): Remember this? Protests, hanging chads, charges of voter intimidation. The 2000 presidential race raised questions about election integrity. And Democrats say today's Supreme Court ruling may raise even more.</s>DONNA BRAZILE, DIRECTOR, DNC VOTING RIGHTS INST.: The voter ID scam is a suppression tactic used by many people to undermine the right to vote in this country.</s>ARENA: In upholding Indiana's strict voter ID law, the toughest in the nation, the high court cleared the way for other states to follow suit. Voting rights advocates say the impact will be felt most heavily among the poor, the elderly, minorities, people who tend to vote Democratic.</s>MELISSA MADILL, INDIANA VOTING RIGHTS ADVOCATE: It's actually infuriating. It's infuriating that people who really need to impact the system the most are being denied the right to do so.</s>ARENA: The hurdles are real for people like Karen Vaughn, a quadriplegic who doesn't have a driver's license or a passport. She had to pay more than $100 to get documentation to prove who she was.</s>KAREN VAUGHN, VOTING RIGHTS PLAINTIFF: They just don't care. We're unimportant.</s>ARENA: Indiana isn't the only state to require I.D. More than 20 states ask voters to present identification, including most of the key battleground states. Election officials say the laws are necessary to prevent fraud.</s>TODD ROKITA, INDIANA SECRETARY OF STATE: And it's so easy for someone to claim that I'm -- that they're somebody else and steal an election that way.</s>ARENA: But there's little hard evidence to back that up. And the ACLU and People for the American Way say there's evidence instead to suggest that disadvantaged voters will have a hard time. In past elections in Ohio and Florida, some voters reportedly complained that poll workers tried to turn them away even with proper I.D.</s>ARENA: Wolf, state election officials say that they're working very hard to make sure everyone knows what the rules are, what kind of I.D. is accepted. Some experts say the Democrats, though, will have to work a little harder to make sure that their members are well- informed.</s>BLITZER: Kelly, thanks very much. So what impact will the court's decision have on the November election? Let's discuss that and more with our senior political analyst, Gloria Borger. She's here in Washington; our own Jack Cafferty in New York; our senior analyst, Jeff Toobin. He's also in New York. They're all part of the best political team on television. And, Jeff, I want to start with you. You've written the brilliant best-seller, "The Nine," about the Supreme Court. Were you surprised by this major decision -- some saying the most important voting rights decision since 2000 and "Bush v. Gore?"</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I wasn't surprised by the result. I was surprised by the vote. I was surprised to see Justice Stevens, certainly one of the more liberal justices, siding with the conservatives. But the outcome looked pretty much preordained from the way the Justices sounded in the oral argument and the fact that there are five conservatives on the court now.</s>BLITZER: It was a 6-3 decision. Jack, did they make the right call?</s>CAFFERTY: You know, it's just great to have the Supreme Court back in the presidential election, isn't it?</s>CAFFERTY: I mean they haven't had anything to say about one since 2000. Jeff could address this a little better than I could because he's much more knowledgeable about it. But there's -- to me, there's something sinister about these kinds of laws. Most of the people who have an Indiana driver's license will be able to show that, go to the polls, no big deal. The people who may not be able to cast a vote because they can't comply with this law tend to be poor people. They tend to be Democrats. The legislation was supported by the Republicans in Indiana and it was backed by the conservatives on the Supreme Court. Is there something sinister going on, Mr. Toobin?</s>TOOBIN: Well, I don't think there's any doubt that this was a partisan enterprise. You know, Democrats have said from the beginning, this is a cure for which there was no disease.</s>CAFFERTY: Right.</s>TOOBIN: Voter fraud is not a major problem in this country.</s>GLORIA BORGER, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Right.</s>TOOBIN: No one in the history of Indiana has been prosecuted for voter fraud, yet here the Indiana legislature felt the need to do this. But the Supreme Court said, look, voter fraud is illegal. If the legislature wants to make a step to make voter fraud that much harder to commit, we're not going to second guess them.</s>BORGER: But, you know, you have to consider this in the whole political context. Voter suppression has been a problem in this country. So this case before the Supreme Court does not appear in a political vacuum. And Democrats worry, given past history with voter suppression, that if you get to a close general election -- and believe me, we all know we've been there before -- that this could truly make a difference for them. So now they're looking to their local Democratic Parties to try and work this out so they can be sure to get those minorities, those elderly voters, those disabled voters to the polls.</s>BLITZER: So government...</s>TOOBIN: And...</s>BLITZER: Some government formed, government issued photo I.D. -- you need it to get on a plane. So the argument is, Jack, why not make sure that illegal immigrants or non-citizens or people who were convicted of -- felons, that they can't vote, find a major way to make sure that only the real eligible U.S. citizens are voting.</s>CAFFERTY: Well, the same nonsense that has come to apply to our air travel in the wake of 9/11 is -- I mean there's something parallel going on with this kind of stuff. There's no reason to put the average middle-aged person in this country through the kind of inconvenience and nonsense that they have to go through to get on an airplane just because some terrorists hijacked planes six years ago. And there's no reason for this, either. This isn't Chicago during Al Capone's time, when dead people used to show up and vote in every election. We don't -- Jeff just said, we don't have voter fraud in this country -- at least not at the levels that we're talking about here, where some 75- year-old woman who needs a walker to go and vote is going to somehow represent a great force of corruption to the democratic process. The two political parties take care of that pretty much all by themselves.</s>CAFFERTY: They don't need our help.</s>BLITZER: I know, Gloria, there's going to have an -- there's going to be an impact in November, in a general election, a presidential election, Senate elections, House elections, state and local elections.</s>BORGER: Sure.</s>BLITZER: But what about next Tuesday in Indiana, where the Democrats are holding their presidential primary -- the Supreme Court announcing today, deciding that the law in Indiana is constitutional, you need a photo I.D. to go ahead and vote. Does this help Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or is it really irrelevant?</s>BORGER: I think, at this point, Wolf, it's very hard to say whether it's relevant or not. Probably irrelevant. But I'm sure both of the campaigns right now are taking a look at their voters and saying, at the local level, at the district level, at the county level, whatever, saying to them, you know, make sure you've got proper identification when you go out and vote and doing a bit of voter education on this right now. But it...</s>CAFFERTY: Well, part...</s>BORGER: In terms of a few days from now, I don't really -- I don't really see it.</s>CAFFERTY: This law has been on the books since 2005 in Indiana.</s>BORGER: Right.</s>CAFFERTY: They've had a half a dozen statewide elections. So the people there are used to dealing with this, I think.</s>BORGER: Right. Exactly. Exactly.</s>TOOBIN: And look for states with Republican legislatures and Republican governors to start pushing these laws.</s>CAFFERTY: Yes.</s>BORGER: Sure.</s>TOOBIN: It happened in Indiana, happened in Georgia, happened in Florida. And any state where you have that kind of political alignment, you're going to see laws like this.</s>BLITZER: I think you're absolutely right. Twenty states have similar laws and a lot more, presumably, will get them down the road. All right, guys, stand by we have much more to talk about. The race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- could it be over in June? That's what the Democratic Party chairman, Howard Dean, is calling for. But will the candidates and the party's superdelegates listen? Plus, the new DNC ad using John McCain's own words -- but are they being twisted, are they being used out of context? We're taking a closer look right here on THE SITUATION ROOM.