## Facts

- Wisconsin enacted 2011 Wis. Act 23 requiring voters to present specified photo identification to vote.
- In earlier litigation, the district court enjoined the law statewide, but the Seventh Circuit reversed and upheld the statute against a facial challenge; certiorari was denied.
- On remand, plaintiffs pursued narrower claims, including that some eligible voters cannot obtain qualifying photo ID with reasonable effort and that certain veterans’ identification cards were excluded.
- The district court rejected the veterans’ ID claim and declined to address the “unable to obtain ID” as-applied claim, concluding the Seventh Circuit’s earlier mandate foreclosed further litigation.
- Wisconsin later amended the statute to require acceptance of veterans’ identification cards, and plaintiffs appealed the refusal to consider the as-applied “unable to obtain ID” claim.

## Issues

1. Whether the challenge regarding refusal to accept veterans’ identification cards remained a live controversy after Wisconsin amended the statute to require acceptance of those cards.
2. Whether the Seventh Circuit’s earlier decision upholding the voter-ID law facially barred further as-applied litigation by eligible voters who cannot obtain qualifying photo ID with reasonable effort.

## Decision

- The court held the veterans’ ID issue was moot after the statutory amendment.
- The court vacated the district court’s judgment on the veterans’ ID claim and remanded with instructions to dismiss that claim as moot under the usual vacatur practice when mootness prevents appellate review.
- The court held the district court misread the earlier mandate: the prior decision resolved a facial challenge but did not decide whether voters unable to obtain ID with reasonable effort have an as-applied claim.
- The court vacated the portion of the district court’s judgment refusing to consider those as-applied claims and remanded for further proceedings and factual development concerning the state’s current ID-issuing system.

## Legal Principles

- A statutory amendment that grants the relief sought can moot a claim; when mootness arises pending appeal, vacatur and remand for dismissal may be appropriate to prevent an unreviewable adverse judgment from having continuing effect.
- Upholding an election law against a facial challenge does not necessarily preclude as-applied challenges by a narrower class of voters asserting severe burdens in practice.
- The right to vote is individual; the relative ease of compliance for most voters does not, by itself, resolve claims by those for whom compliance is impossible or not attainable with reasonable effort.
- As-applied voting-burden claims may require updated factfinding focused on how the state’s identification processes operate at the time of adjudication.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit dismissed the veterans’ ID dispute as moot after Wisconsin amended its law and held that prior appellate approval of the voter-ID statute on its face did not foreclose as-applied claims by eligible voters who cannot obtain qualifying ID with reasonable effort, requiring remand for current, record-based evaluation.


Frank v. Walker, 819 F.3d 384 (7th Cir. 2016)