On July 12, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy again ruled that requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote at the polls violates the U.S. Constitution. Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201. Last year the same judge had thrown out an earlier version of the law. Since then, the legislature had amended the requirement to say that indigents can get a free state ID. However, evidence in the newer case showed that several hundred thousand Georgia adult citizens lack any government photo ID, and the primary is on July 18.

The July 12 ruling is 193 pages long.

A state court had also enjoined the law last week, and the State Supreme Court had refused to lift the injunction. The primary will now be held under the old, old rules, requiring ID but not necessarily a government-photo-ID.