Supreme Court blocks Wisconsin from implementing voter ID law

Late Thursday night, the Supreme Court blocked Wisconsin from putting into effect the state's voter ID law.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas all dissented, saying the court cannot block an appeals court ruling unless the lower court "clearly and demonstrably erred in its application of accepted standards," USA Today reports.

A 2011 Wisconsin law required voters to show an approved photo ID when arriving at the polls. Earlier this year, a federal district judge found that the law was unconstitutional, and especially affected black and Hispanic residents; the judge also found no evidence that voters were showing up impersonating each other, which was the rationale behind the law.

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That decision was reversed in September by a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The ACLU and the Advancement Project said the law could affect 300,000 residents — primarily racial minorities, students, seniors, and people with disabilities — who do not have a proper form of ID, and in their petition to the Supreme Court said the requirement "will cause chaos at the polls and will disenfranchise many thousands of Wisconsin voters."