At the Examiner, we rejoice in yesterday’s good decision on the voter-photo-ID case. I’ve been writing about this case for quite some time. The only thing that is disappointing is that the main opinion by Stevens (with Kennedy and Roberts) took the typical Stevens/Kennedy tack of applying a “balancing test” to adjudge whether or not a photo ID requirement might, under other circumstances, be too burdensome; i.e., as always, Kennedy wants the court to always assert its power to make minute and solomonic judgements, for it to be the all-wise arbiter based on intuitive knowledge too lofty for us mere mortals to adjudge for ourselves or for us to write hard-and-fast rules about. Oh, Lord, the mischief that was caused when Reagan settled for Kennedy after Bork was Borked, rather than again trying for a home run such as Silberman or Starr. Scalia (with Thomas and Alito) had a better, more straightforward concurrence. Oh, well. Be thankful for good results, if not perfect reasoning.
