PA Voter ID Law relies on 1869 case that warned of "rogues," "strumpets," and "wandering Arabs"

[powergirl]

By Nicole Flatow on Sep 11, 2012 at 3:51 pm

"As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of the state’s photo ID law, a University of Pittsburgh law professor flagged the flimsy and offensive precedent upon which the lower court relied when it upheld the law. In rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that the law violates the state Constitution’s guarantee of “free and equal elections,” the court cited the 1869 case of Patterson v. Barlow, which, Professor Jessie Allen points out, serves as a “blatant example of the anti-democratic voter suppression alleged by plaintiffs in the current voter ID case.”:

"The law approved in Patterson enacted a complicated set of registration procedures for Philadelphia (with its large working-class and immigrant populations) and a simpler procedure for the rest of the state. . . . The opinion justifies a tougher process for Philadelphia voters because “rogues and strumpets do not nightly traverse the deserted highways of the farmer. Low inns, restaurants, sailors’ boarding-houses and houses of ill fame do not abound in rural precincts, ready to pour out on election day their pestilent hordes.”

For good measure, the court explained that to overturn the tighter procedures for Philadelphia voters “would be to place the vicious vagrant, the wandering Arabs, the Tartar hordes of our large cities, on a level with the virtuous and good man.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/09/11/829841/decision-upholding-pennsylvania-voter-id-law-relied-on-1886-case-warning-of-rogues-strumpets-and-wandering-arabs/?mobile=nc

[Lucy Goosey]

1. I'm surprised they missed the opportunity to completely disenfranchise women

This case is from before women were allowed to vote, and it would fit nicely into the Republican war on women, right? Sadly, I'm sure there are plenty of Repubs who actually believe women shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Strumpets! Rogues!

How about Ne'er-Do-Wells, scalawags and soiled doves?

[catnhatnh]

3. There's never a good strumpet around...

...when I need one!

[HopeHoops]

4. The only house of "ill fame" we have right now is in the same building with the PA Senate.

[brooklynite]

5. So, stumpets can't vote, but Tarts and Hussies can?

Seem's remarkably inconsistent...