Supreme Court Halts GOP Litigation On Verifying Voter Registrations in Ohio

The good thing about the Supreme Court's order vacating the TRO obtained by the Ohio GOP against Jennifer Brunner is that it is unanimous, and it is final. The unfortunate thing is that it halts the litigation without rejecting the GOP arguments on the merits.

I was out of the loop when this decision came out a few hours ago, but Jill has several posts, including a link to the text of the Supreme Court order [.pdf]. The court vacated the TRO because the GOP doesn't have a sufficient likelihood of success on its argument that a private party can sue under the relevant provision of the Help America Vote Act.

Because the Supreme Court "express[ed] no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented," I'm sure we will hear nothing but screaming from the Republicans as they continue to try to stir up panic about supposed voter fraud and lay the groundwork for attacking Jennifer Brunner as the 2010 election approaches.

Nevertheless, the decision short-circuits the Republicans' effort to divert thousands of voters into the troublesome world of provisional voting, and that is a very good thing. Here is Brunner's statement hailing the decision:

Our nation’s highest court has protected the voting rights of all Ohioans, allowing our bipartisan elections officials to continue preparing for a successful November election. We filed this appeal to protect all Ohio voters from illegal challenges and barriers that unfairly silence the votes of some to the advantage of others.

Now that the nation’s highest court has ruled in favor of Ohio voters, I encourage everyone to support the bipartisan system of elections administration in our state. I ask all involved to stop the legal maneuvers that unnecessarily shake public confidence. We will continue to work with our local election officials to successfully prepare for an unprecedented turnout and a fair election process.