DOJ Witness Can Fly to Washington, But Can’t Get Voter ID (Updated)
This is too much. The Justice Department actually called a witness in the Texas Voter ID trial today in Washington, D.C. The witness complained she couldn’t find the time to get her parents to drive her to get the free photo ID, but she obviously had time to fly to Washington, D.C., from Texas to testify at trial!
Henry Jackson writes at the Associated Press.
Victoria Rose Rodriguez, 18, told a federal court in Washington that she had limited documentation — a birth certificate, a high school transcript and a student ID card with a photo on it — but is currently a registered voter in Texas. She said her parents are too busy to take her or her twin sister to get the new voter identification cards required by the law.
Naturally, Henry Jackson doesn’t seem to note this obvious laugher, that Rodriguez has parents too busy to get the ID, but can hop a plane in San Antonio and spend at least a day in Washington, D.C., and then ride back home. In fact, Jackson (and the rest of press) simply laps up the government’s stories without question.
There was a time in the Voting Section when the DOJ wouldn’t introduce such absurd evidence. The conversation would go something like this:
Young lawyer: I want to call Victoria Rodriguez. Her parents are too busy to give her a ride to get photo ID. They don’t have the 30 minutes to spare.
Older seasoned lawyer: Well, do you really think that is a good idea? Don’t you think we open ourselves up to a devastating cross examination about priorities?
Young lawyer: I’m not sure I follow.
Older seasoned lawyer: We’re not going to call her. Texas will point out the absurdity of us calling a witness to say she doesn’t have time to get a photo ID but can fly 2000 miles to testify at trial. Who took the time to drive her to the airport? We’d need to get her a cab to make this story work. Isn’t going to happen. It could prove embarrassing.
Add a southern accent to the old seasoned lawyer and I’m pretty sure this is the exact conversation that would occur. These days, as we know, irrational decisions are being made from root to branch.
Update: Did the Associated Press Airbrush an Inconvenient Quote?
The regulations of the TSA specifically provide that one may fly without a photo id if one can provides alternative forms of identity http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-hines/voter-id-laws_b_1247008.html This is from the TSA Regulations http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/acceptable_documents.shtm
Not having an ID, does not necessarily mean a passenger won’t be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone’s identity, like using publicly available databases.
Ummm dud you even read the article cause he absolutely nothing to do with airport security and rules of air travel
She travelled from TX to DC; how? (Probably by commercial airplane) If she did fly, how did she get through TSA screening? Also, how did she get through screening at the DC Federal courthouse?
Citing the purpose of the trip, could I suggest one of the Air Force One Clones.
Uh, you missed the point. She has the time to go to Washington, D.C, but not the time to get her voter ID. Ridiculous on its face, only in the Obama Administration would something so stupid be brought before a court. Anyone with a brain knows this is a lie. The girl ought to be prosecuted for perjury. I bet she has time to get her parents to do lots of things for her. Someone interested in justice should make it a point to find out.
At the discretion of TSA. If they wanted to delay her to the point of missing her flight, they could have. The fact that they didn’t is suspicious in itself.
I can’t read the Huffington Post thing because I can’t access websites with large quantities of hate speech or obscenities from here at work, but it’s moot, since the issue wasn’t her being able to fly without ID (although that is iffy, at best) but “not having time” to get her free voter ID, as required by law.
By the same logic, if she doesn’t have time to vote, Texas should be required to come to her house and fill out the ballot forms for her. While I am sure Democrats would be happy to fill out her ballot, I don’t think they would be willing to take them time to find out who she wants to vote for.
TL, even by following the rules at your link, she had to have a government-issued photo ID. By “alternative,” they mean “other forms of government-issued photo ID.”
There is one way for her to have made it to DC without showing ID, though – did the DOJ put her on a government plane to fly her in (at a cost of several thousand dollars)?
Checked the second link. I clearly would not try to get near an airport without official ID, based on that.
No, the real idiocy is the State of Texas’ attorney didn’t point out that if she had time to fly to and from DC…she almost certainly had time to get a FREE!!!! state provided ID card. That’s the real idiocy.
Good God, what kind of a lawyer are you? The point being made was that a person who did not have time for her parents to take her to the place where the picture ID is made had enough time to get to the San Antonio airport, get a ticket, fly to D.C., testify at some assinine congressional crapload, spend the day in D.C., then fly back, get picked up at the airport and driven home. What kind of a tool are you that you cannot figure out the thrust of an argument, and see the massive irony that is biting you in the ass?
A Democrat attorney perhaps?
Hey Texas! I’m calling you on this one. I just clicked that TSA link and the alternate forms of ID they list – ARE ALL TYPES OF PHOTO IDS!
Interesting you only state a Photo ID isn’t required, but yet you miss all the forms of ID required are government issued Identification not including a birth certificate. Why one should ask? Because there is no photo or other relevant information like current height weight etc.
The other public forms to identify someone is the use of either their voter registration which is conducted at the DMV/BMV in most states or criminal records which have booking photos…
This girl is a plant, a seed, and a disgrace. It reminds me of the woman that slept around too much in Georgetown Uni but couldn’t afford condoms… They chose to waste our time and resources with irrelevant testimony from ‘actors’ this is perjury again by the DOJ. The blatant disrespect for the Constitution our contract with the government is yet another in a long list of sad times for real Americans.
She seems to me to be step beyond a simple bad witness — she is a case-breaking witness. If one assumes, as seems fair, that this was the best example that the DOJ lawyers could find in support of their position, then they have no case.
Suggest you read the posting I made yesterday. DOJ doesn’t have a “case” to bring, Texas does. Texas bears the burden of proof. If DOJ can show any blemish at all in the law, Texas loses.
Ahh, yes. Guilty until proven innocent. How could we forget?
Mr. Adams, do you intentionally throw out red meat to us only to act like the omnipotent big brother and slap us down when we are trying to make comments on what you have written. It is getting tedious.
Either you are with us or not. Either help us understand how corrupt DC especially the DOJ is or not. But stop with the slap downs on our comments. If you are trying to impress us with your knowledge, you are losing. If that is the case, go back to the DOJ.
Some of the writers at this and other blogs seem to think that insulting readers somehow builds loyalty
Cris – not meant as an insult. The applicibility of Crawford to the Texas Voter ID case is an issue well beyond a blog posting. Since you asked, here is the short version: Crawford was a facial challenge to Voter ID where the plaintiffs had the burden of proof. Crawford did not validate voter ID everywhere in all instances. Texas is in a very very different posture than Indiana was. Texas bears the burden of proof and under Section 5, must show an absence of any discriminatory effect or intent. They have the burden to show a clean soul. Crawford might help on a few issues involving evidence of intent, but not much more than that. The evidence relating to intent it will help with involves the availability of inferences under Arlington Heights relating to the purpose of passing voter ID and how Texas might block those inferences using Crawford. But Crawford, in my view, has no role on the effects side of the case, and Texas can lose the whole game on effect, and Crawford doesn’t provide them a safe harbor in the slightest there. I’m not going to write more about this at PJ because it is not a legal journal. Take care.
Are you serious? Poor little fellow. Don’t criticize my comments! Words fail me.
The prosecution bears the burden of proof, or at least as it is written in our contract, the Constitution.
This is a case Texas brought. Under Section 5, Texas has the burden of proof. The burden shift has been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court. Read SC v. Katzenbach.
Mr. Adams, thank you for your insight. That is unfortunate though, it is a bit tougher for Texas now. Hmm I am certain the bright lawyers of TX saw this though I did not.
The burden of proof lies on the person with the positive premise. If Texas is disenfranchising this girl, she must prove that. She has only proven that her parents are.
Er, she needed photo ID to get on the plane, unless she’s under 18 and accompanied by an adult — in which case she’s not eligible to vote.
The other inconvenient truth here is that Texas will absorb the cost of the ID if the applicant cannot pay. So the “time lost” and “cost issue” are moot. What else ya got? HMMM?
What an absolute disgrace. These are the types of people running (ruining) this country. Yet more proof of how far off the rails they’ve truly gone. Will this country ever be even close to sane again? When will enough finally be enough? There is no longer any real rule of law, justice (let alone being blind), nor constitution. It truly makes me feel sick.
The girl is 18 years old. She has her birth certificate. If her parents can’t take her to get a photo ID, does she have no other relatives, no friends who could give her a ride? She obviously has the money to fly, so why not take a cab? Her “testimony” is bogus, and our government is a joke.
What’s really the biggest shame is that we (as a nation) are forced to even argue all these ridiculous points. It’s patently absurd and yet the children of the left continue to whine and stamp their little feet and scream “I WANT MY BIKE!”.
The arguments that the left has brought, from Pelosi to Reid, to Holder to Warren and so many more are little more than a busload of kids all sticking their tongues out at the adults. After all, if they ALL do it, they must be right, right?
Okay so when are you and we going to take a more aggressive action to do something about it???
Seems like all we do is complain.
blotto, unless you are prepared to use force, all you CAN do is complain. Are you prepared to use force?
The comment was indeed aimed at blotto, but I will say with no hesitation or reservation that i am ready to use force. Neville Chamberlain, with all of his flowery platitudes, did not stop the army of Nazi Germany. The soldiers on the front lines did. Given the precarious position We the People are already in concerning His (supposed) Majesty, force is the only argument we can make at this point. In fact, if I use my imagination just a smidgen I can imagine that we are under the governing tyranny of King George again. Yes, it is time to gather the gunpowder and ensure that all weapons are in a serviceable condition. Those who have the courage to step forward must with steel in their spines and their raison d’etre locked safely in their hearts.
Non Sibi Sed Patriae! (Not for self, but country!)
“Seems like all we do is complain.”
I’ll interpret that as a royal “we,” given your comment here and the other above to Mr. Adams.
If her parents couldn’t bother to drive her and she has no friends (18 yr olds are eligible to drive in Texas, aren’t they) who would do her and her twin sister the favor…how did she get to the airport?
In order to be effected negatively, we would have to believe these two girls are friendless, that there is no public transportation to the appropriate site, that her parents have not one moment during open hours, that no relatives could help and that these twin girls are NEVER able to go the same distance from their homes as this appropriate site location by ANY means of transportation.
Seems simple enough to verify.
1,602.1 mi is the distance from San Antonio to Washington D.C., it is the same distance back.
It would have been a lot cheaper if the Democratic Party would have given the twins a ride…instead of yet again taking the entire country for one.
HERE’S WHATI HAVE TO SAY? WHO EVER WINS RACE, YOU HAVE 4YRS AFTER TO GET VOTER ID….THINK ABOUT THIS 4 YRS…………ENOUGH OF TIME..
Every gov’t that has ever existed has failed its citizens. This one is no exception.
Supreme Court upholds voter ID law. Stevens: Law justified to protect integrity, reliability of electoral process. Evan Vucci / AP file Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher succeeded in proving his voter ID case to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the court’s ruling coming just one week before his state’s primary vote. 4/28/2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24351798/ns/politics/t/supreme-court-upholds-voter-id-law/
Where valid ID’s are required (Hint: Not when voting) FEBRUARY 21, 2012
http://www.mrconservative.com/2012/02/2072-where-valid-ids-are-required-hint-not-when-voting/
The last thing I noted from your article is that she flew to D.C. right? You have to provide identification before you are allowed on a plane or even in the terminal! How could this happen?
You can get on a plane without photo ID. Of course if everyone tried to use the alternate methods, the system would crash.
If you’re too “busy” to bother getting (or too helpless to figure it out) a photo ID maybe we don’t want you selecting our government. Rights have attendant responsibilities – or at least they should!
Is there a right to vote. Government bestows upon us the privelage of voting but i am unaware where in the constitution it mentions i have the “right to vote”.
The shame is that a republican house and senate reaffirmed section 5 voting rights law back in 2006, and the wonderful Bush signed it.
it is no longer 1965, Conservatives and republicans must start acting like all these old laws rationales are still valid.
15th Amendment to the Constitution. Right to vote free from racial discrmination.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
so this is the first place it shows up. If it was a right why were women not then allwoed to vote, were they not citizens? why did we need 19th ammendment?
or does this mearely outlaw the reasons for deny people the privilage to vote can not be becuase of their “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
did the right of “freedom of speech” not apply to blacks until explicitly stated? does a felon lose his right to freedom of speech with his right to bear arms.
constitutional nitpicking i know.
WOW! You’re obviously a leftanista MORON…So sorry for the name calling. Suppose your just a fact challenged non-intellect.
Guess I should explain. Except to the Obama tribe, the voter ID issue has NOTHING to do with racial discrimination.
This is an ad waiting to be recorded and played 1000 times in battle ground states. Anyone who has boarded a plane the past ten years knows what a ridiculous lie this is.
The argument that DOJ is making makes no sense. DOJ is alleging a disparate racial impact. Why does being too busy have anything to do with race? Where’s the racial angle, other than an Hispanic name? Is getting ID any less time consuming for Anglos?
GREAT point!
Anglos have their servants get their ID for them. Duh.
/sarc
I should have used that argument a while back and avoided both getting a Social Security card and registering for the draft. Then I could just explain that “it was too much trouble.” I also don’t have the time to file taxes, stop at red lights or answer jury summonses. What a wonderful, all-purpose excuse!
Is her name Julia? I might have missed the slide where someone from the government came and gave her a ride.
To enter a federal courthouse one needs to have valid state issued picture ID, I was turned away from my girlfriends Social Security hearing because my license had expired a month earlier.
How was she able to enter and testify without such an ID?
She has one form of ID (School) but not one accepted in the Texas law to vote.
A school ID is nothing, there is no form of verification that you are whom you say you are, this it is nothing more than a name tag in plastic wallet form. I am Eric Holder if I ever go to Harvard…
The point is, you have to show a government ID for nearly anything involving yourself financially or with government. IF you are an AMERICAN you have the LIABILITY to PROVE IT… So with that you should have to PROVE you are able to vote in America.
There is no issue with presenting gov’t ID to vote (PERIOD) if so I should not have to present ID to take tax payers money in government handouts…
Left/libtards will go out of there way for stuff they want and to avoid stuff they don’t, principle be damned… or the principle is whatever they want, no matter how irrational.
This doesn’t make sense. San Antonio resident Victoria Rose Rodriguez is an adult with access to an urban transit system. Instead of waiting on a ride from her parents she could ride the bus.
http://www.viainfo.net/BusService/Schedules.aspx
logic and practicality have no place in an arguement where this government is concerned.
Apparently legs are no longer useful. Growing up I used my legs to either walk or pedal my bicycle when I wanted something and I managed to survive just fine. What bothers me is the fact that she can’t even take a goddam bus to get ID. Anyone that inexcusably lazy doesn’t deserve to vote. Then again she’s exactly the type of “everything should be handed to me” voter the Libs love.
Another good argument for restoring the 21-year-old voting age.
This is just one more load of Horse Biscuits, (Texas Size), from the Liberal Left. I support, voter I.D..
Why didn’t the person driving her to the sirport just take her to get her ID instead? This is too stupid to even think about. If they had taken to get her ID instead of to the airport the problem would be solved for her. Instead, the driver, obviously a mean republican, didn’t help her and took her to airport where, even without ID she managed to get thru security and get to DC, then to the hearing. No one in all those helpful people driving her here and there bothered to help her get ID. They must all be mean republicans…… there is just no other explanation. Because any rational person would have found a ride to get their ID, she is not believable. Because she can get a ride to the airport she can also be assumed to be able to get her ID. Her very actions disprove her case.
She said her parents are too busy to take her or her twin sister to get the new voter identification cards required by the law.
Her parents are too busy???Too f’ng bad.
Did the AP change their story? Because that quote does not appear in the current article.
I was going to ask the same question. The article appears to have been edited to remove the mention of her having her birth certificate and the reference to her parents being too busy to help her out…you know, the stuff that makes this young lady and the Justice Dept. look really stupid. Now either AP or the TV/Radio station look equally stupid for attempting to make the story less absurd.
Here is how it reads now:
[i]She said she lacked the necessary documents and the ability to travel to a location where she can obtain the newly required voter ID.[/i]
One can only wonder if the “necessary documents” she lacks are, perhaps, citizenship documents!
If they can’t take 1/2 an hour to get her to the voter registrar, how will get to her voting place on election day?????
Are we next going to be made to record an “assumed vote” for her because she couldn’t be there in person?
Hahaha you work in a housewares store.
I would like to encourage all readers of this post to volunteer for True The Vote. (www.TrueTheVote.org).
The reason the Left does not want Voter ID is so they can use the names of dead people still on the voter rolls, those registered illegally, and those registered in document dumps at the last minute (a la ACORN), without challenge. In this fashion, a single person can vote under many different names.
At True The Vote, we are working to put the dead back in their graves and ensure that elections are fair and true. We are training poll watchers and officials in many states. Check out http://www.TrueTheVote.org, see if we are active in your state. If we are not, yet, there are research projects you can help with from your home, regardless of your state of residence. True The Vote is nonpartisan.
Commenting on blog posts and engaging in discussion helps alert people to the size of the problem, but does not change the problem. By helping with True The Vote you will be helping solve the problem!
Texas has to prove an ABSENSE of discrimination?
That’s absurd, you can’t prove a negative!
If this girl could find a way to get to the airport, board a plane and get to washington, I’m reasonably sure she can find a way to get to the DMV and get a state issued ID.
Most ridiculous nonsense I ever heard.
I can’t imagine people getting through daily life without a photo ID, you need it to cash checks, open bank accounts, get a job, rent an apt, buy alcohol or cigarettes, get credit, get insurance, and the worst case scenario, if you turn up dead in a ditch, they’ll be able to ID you quickly if you have a photo ID on you, but requiring a photo ID to vote is somehow discrimination? GMAB!
“Texas has to prove an ABSENSE of discrimination?”
Yep, that is precisely what the statute says. I’ll bet you a cup of coffee your own Senator and Rep voted for it in 2006. The change passed overwhelmingly.
If texas cannot discriminate in voter laws how is enforcing laws about felons not being allowed to vote legal? wouldn’t that have a disparate impact on minorities given their over represenation in that demographic category?
only half serious question as teh point is it is the law but absurd that they have to prove an abscense of discrimination. absolute nonsense law!!
I was watching these committee meetings and the debate on the Texas Leg. floor during this entire debate.
Did you know there is a provision for “Mobile Units” to reach out to those that could not make it to DMV for the ID?
Did you also know that Democrats protested that provision because Republicans refused to use the Rainy Day fund or raise taxes to pay for it?
Another tidbit, there were 100 – 1 testimonies presented against the law provided by LaRaza and LULAC
How was this person able to board an airplace twice without showing photo ID? I have flown numerous times the last few years and had to show it every time. Did DOJ send a plane out to pick her up?
Somebody help me with the math here please. She obviously got to the airport and got onto a plane. The plane took off and after a trip of ______ hours landed in DC where she disembarked and somehow got to the place where her testimony was taken. Safe to say she had lunch at the Governments expense ?
Then she returned to the DC airport, boarded another plane and after a trip of _____ hours she arrived safely at her starting location airport. And from there she was somehow able to get to her home.
And this was done at the request of the Justice Department, Eric Holder’s Justice Department.
Dont look like no pole tax to me !!
This is another stunt by Democrats to convince the stupid. This is so much a farce, it is not even funny. Her parents are too busy to take her to get an id? O.K. she is 18. There is a city ran bus service in San Antonio. Why can she not take the Bus to get her id? If she has time to fly to Washington to testify, then surely she has time to ride a bus. The politicians who set this up must think we are all as stupid as they are.
Did she drive to the airport?
Seriously! I have never met an 18 year old that just sits at home. I know that this child has been to at least a grocery store, the mall, etc. No time…MY A$$. This is utterly ridiculous. The DOJ must think we are idiots. I don’t buy it.
T ishere a growing list of government officials that should be tried and hung (yes I said hung, if a good enough example is made, this won’t need to happen more than once) for treason. I’m am absolutely in shock. Why in the world would you not require an ID to vote? Oh, yes, because you are shady.
Democrats must think we are dumb.
You ARE stupid, Tanstaafl, if you believe the crap Adams writes. Read the article. The girl doesn’t have the documents needed. J. Christian Adams pulls this stuff out of his butt and you people accept it without question.
If she hasn’t got the documents that would prove she’s eligible to vote, then how do you know she is eligible? What makes you think she’s eligible? Why should she be allowed to vote, when she may very well be ineligible?
Did any of you actually read the article referenced? NOWHERE does she say she “doesn’t have time” to get her ID, or that her parents don’t have time to take her. She never even mentions her parents. She says she lacks the required documentation, and the ABILITY to get to the place where they issue IDs. No reason is given, but she NEVER says that she just doesn’t have time. You wingnuts just pull this stuff out of your collective butts.
AH HA! AP changed the story. See my Brietbart story on the change. Not wingnuts.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/07/12/ap-changes-story-to-make-doj-look-less-absurd
ummmm… Got a screen grab? Got a link to where the “money quote” is stored? ‘Cus I can type words on the web and say they’re real too. We all can. “Quotes or scrotes”, I say. Prove it, or BALLS to you.
How was he supposed to know that AP would change the story? Without that knowledge, why would it occur to him to take a screen shot? When he wrote his article the quote was there; it’s not there now, therefore AP changed it. You have no business calling him a liar without any foundation.
…or, ya know, you can just continue pulling stuff outta your butt.
If she doesn’t have the require documents to get ID she must be an illegal alien and shouldn’t be allowed to vote anyway.If at 18 she can’t get the required documents she’s to stupid to be allowed to vote.Any one with access to the US Mail can get their Birth certificate.If they were really born here, anybody except Obama.
I don’t want an 18-year old apparently incapable on her own of obtaining identification voting, so it suits me just fine if she never gets a ride.
Read the article, Sukie. She doesn’t have the documents needed. J. Christian Adams pulls this stuff out of his butt and you people accept it without question.
If you believe that AP didn’t change the story, then, why doesn’t she have the required documents? If it’s a matter of not having the required documents, and she can’t get the required documents, then she isn’t legal, and yes, that means she isn’t eligible to vote.
In Texas you can call your County Registrar and they will mail you an application for Voter Registration. Once you are registered you will receive a new card from the Registrar each year, the card being a different color each year. Not only is their argument beyond ridiculous, no one bothered to look up the Texas Registration laws before calling in their sister’s roommate’s cousin from San Antonio.
San Antonio doesn’t have public transportation?… Like VIA METRO Transit?
VIA METRO has 20 hour bus service with 7,210 bus stops along 91 bus lines, covering 1,226 square miles, which is 98% of Bexar County including all of San Antonio… and she can’t get a bus to an office to get her photo ID?… Maybe she doesn’t have the 90 cent fare?.. or smart enough to find a bus stop?… Yea, that’s probably it!..
The liberals charter buses to get these NO-ID voters to the polling precincts on election day so they can vote. They could bus them to the DMV to get a proper ID too. But they want “Voter Suppression” to be an issue each election cycle because they can accuse the Republicans of being racist, and intentionally trying to disenfranchise the minority vote.
They also know, full well, that the media will broadcast those charges daily and that the students in junior high and high school will absorb that information subconsciously.
By the time they’re old enough to vote they’ll vote for the democrat, the party who fights every day to protect the rights of the ordinary civilians from the repressive conservative ideology.
Yep. AP deleted the “no time” quote from the story in the interest of political bias. All you liberal pukes saying otherwise can crawl bak under your troll bridges and clam up.
Well stupid me. I’m disabled and let my drivers license expire ; since I don’t drive I didn’t think about it. Was sure I had two copies of my birth certificate, but can’t find either one. Am pulling my hair out now wondering what to do. I cannot obtain a new i.d. without a birth certificate. The state I was born in now (recently) requires guess what? A photo i.d. to get birth certificate. Both my parents are dead so neither of them can obtain it.
This is quite a mess.