8-1 Supreme Court Decision Upends Student ID Fight in Battleground Days Before Key Senate Election
23rd October 2026
In an unsigned order, the justices paused Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 orders by U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee, that prevented the state from enforcing its restrictions on student IDs as a valid form of voter identification.
Justices cited past precedent, noting, “This Court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.”
They added, “Here, the District Court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, writing, “Consequently, here, the District Court’s injunction was reasonably designed to address alleged misinformation, not to change the law.”