Justice Anthony Kennedy can usually be counted on to be the swing vote when it looks like a case is going to a 4-4 tie. But in the Indiana voter-ID case, it might be someone else:
Interestingly, it was the chief justice, John Roberts, an Indiana native, who seemed more likely to strike a middle ground. He appeared to embrace the notion that combating voter fraud was a reasonable goal of the Indiana law. But he had harsh words for the state's lawyer, Thomas Fisher, after noting that Indiana's voting rolls are so muddled with dead and absent voters that the state was sued by the federal government. In essence, he said that the state was responsible for increasing the risk of fraud at the polls.
"Why do you such a lousy job of registration?" Roberts asked Fisher. "Why should you be able to take advantage of it?"
Chief Justice Roberts asks a reasonable question.
