The ACLU of Illinois adds our voice to all Americans mourning the stilling of a great voice, Chicago legend and national treasure Studs Terkel. Studs described himself as a "guerilla journalist with a tape recorder," but in truth he was a chronicler of America. The land that Studs chronicled was not the America of bankers and Wall Street, but the America of laborers and Main Street. A fixture in Chicago for eight decades, Studs was an inspiration to opinion leaders, to academics, to political leaders, to civil libertarians and to all Chicagoans.
Studs twice was honored by the ACLU of Illinois, first in 1981 with our award for journalism and then again in 1998 with our Freedom of Expression Award. But Studs' work with the ACLU of Illinois did not end with awards.

In 2006, Studs joined our lawsuit against AT&T, serving as the lead plaintiff in litigation challenging the telecoms collaboration with the Bush White House's surveillance of innocent Americans. Studs quickly joined the lawsuit - along with several other prominent Chicago residents - because he believed that the outrages of the Bush White House simply had to be challenged.

In October of 2007, the New York Times published a piece by Studs titled "The Wiretap this Time." In that opinion piece decrying the Bush Administration spying and placing it in historical context, Studs talked about his own experience with a blacklist during the 1950s:

I was among those blacklisted for my political beliefs. My crime? I had signed petitions. Lots of them.

For Studs sake, let us all remember to speak up and speak out wherever and whenever we see injustice and intolerance. And, never be afraid to express our political beliefs. Studs left all of us a large legacy to recall and replicate. Rest well, Studs.

The Supreme Court just overturned a lower court order which would have forced the Ohio Secretary of State to set up a last minute system to enable county elections offices to weed out voter registration errors based on discrepancies with state motor vehicle and federal Social Security databases - databases that have been shown to be riddled with errors.

In a 9-0 ruling, the Court ordered the Appeals Court's temporary restraining order vacated, because the state GOP "... are not sufficiently likely to prevail on the question whether Congress has authorized the District Court to enforce Section 303 [of the Help America Vote Act] in an action brought by a private litigant to justify the issuance of a [Temporary Restraining Order]." The Court did not rule on the merits of the case (the question of whether elections officials are obligated under the Help America Vote Act to throw out voter registrations based on mismatches with motor vehicle or social security databases), the ruling does mean that Ohio will not see more voter registrations thrown out between now and November 4th.

The ruling is especially important because verifying voter registrations via database (as opposed to requiring voters to present federally recognized ID) can lead to disenfranchisement of legally eligible voters. According to Kim Zetter of Wired:

The law requires each voter to have a unique identifier. Since 2004, new registration applicants have had to provide a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number to register (voters who don't have them are assigned a unique number by the state). States are required to try to authenticate the numbers with motor vehicle records and the Social Security Administration database.

But databases are prone to errors such as misspellings and transposed numbers, and applicants are prone to make mistakes or write illegibly on applications. The Social Security Administration has acknowledged that matches between its database and voter-registration records have yielded a 28.5 percent error rate.

The ACLU's Voting Rights Project has a number of resources to help you ensure your rights are protected in the upcoming election.

Hat Tip Ezra Klein