Jimmy Carter Prize For the Advancement of Douchebaggery: ACLU & MALDEF

We are proud to bestow the Jimmy Carter Prize For the Advancement of Douchebaggery to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund for their consorted efforts to overturn Voter ID Acts across the country via onerous lawsuits. Such laws reflect the will of the electorate to combat voter fraud. Thankfully, in a recent ruling, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's Voter ID Act, with the majority deciding that  “The law should be upheld because its overall burden is minimal and justified.” And in the opinion of the Chicago Freedom Forum, if an age were an ID is required to rent a movie, drive a car, or open up a bank account, requiring proof of identification as a prerequisite to vote is not asking too much. And if someone is not willing to make the minimum effort to obtain an ID, their capacity to contribute to the democratic process is dubious. In addition, they have aggressively fought efforts to establish English only ballots. Asking that a citizen obtain proficiency in English not an unreasonable proposition, because a viable democracy requires citizens who possess a basic knowledge of the laws and affairs of the land. Thus, for whatever good they have done, the ACLU and MALDEF have inadvertently contributed to the growing imbalance between rights and responsibilities and the ongoing devaluation of citizenship.