CINCINATI (WKZO-AM) — Unless something dramatic happens, Michgian’s ban on selfies at the ballot box is back in place and a Portage man will just figure out how to record his vote some other way.
Joel Crookston of Portage filed the challenge and his lawyer convinced a federal judge that it was probably unconstitutional. She imposed on injunction on enforcing the century-old law.
The state appealed and now the judges at the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the constitutionality of the law is not the issue right now, the issue is whether the matter is a pressing emergency that the court needs to address immediately with an injunction, and they said no.
The judges ruled that it can wait until it can be challenged at a proper hearing.
The appellant panel ruled that if it was truly an emergency then the suit would have been filed years ago, when the first cell phones with cameras were introduced.
“The timing is good because it takes into account the 1,603 local clerks who would have had to establish and train over 30,000 elections workers on what would have been new rules,” Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who initiated the appeal to restore the law, said.
