Pa. High Court rejects voter ID law, sends back to lower court

In a potentially significant victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court with instructions for that judge to reconsider issuing an injunction, Huffington Post reports.

"We are not satisfied with a mere predictive judgment based primarily on the assurances of government officials," the court wrote.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Commonwealth Court judge, but with instructions that seemed almost designed to force him to enjoin the law.

The judge was instructed "to consider whether the procedures being used for deployment" of ID cards comports with the law as written -- which, in testimony before the Supreme Court, appeared not to be the case.

If those procedures are not being followed, or if the judge was "not still convinced...that there will be no voter disenfranchisement arising out of the Commonwealth’s implementation of a voter identification requirement for purposes of the upcoming election" then he would be "obliged to enter a preliminary injunction," the higher court wrote.

Two Democratic justices dissented, saying the high court should have issued an injunction itself.