Civil rights organizations are challenging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision that allowed Wisconsin's voter ID laws.

Advocacy groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Wisconsin have battled against the state about registered voters obtaining photo identification in order to cast their vote. With the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), LULAC filed a petition for the highest court in the U.S. to review the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to uphold the voter ID law in the state.

Although the law was upheld, the Supreme Court granted a stay and prevented the law from being enacted for the midterm elections last year. The Supreme Court allowed the civil rights groups 90 days to file a petition for a potential review of the case.

"Efforts to restrict access to the ballot demand a full and thorough hearing, which is why we are asking the Supreme Court to review this case and ultimately strike down Wisconsin's voter ID law," said ACLU's Voting Rights Project Director Dale Ho. "Throughout years of litigation, Wisconsin has failed to identify a single instance of the type of fraud this law purportedly seeks to prevent. At the same time, it is absolutely clear this law would prevent thousands of voters from exercising the most fundamental right in our democracy."

The civil rights advocates acknowledged a federal judge had ruled the Wisconsin voter ID law as unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act in April 2014. Ho added the Supreme Court has an opportunity to protect Americans' right to vote "free from undue burdens."

The petition to the Supreme Court charges that the state's voter ID law violates the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is defending the voter ID law, has not issued a comment on the petition.

Wisconsin legislators, particularly of the Republican Party, passed the law in 2011. People who lack photo identification are able to obtain a free ID at the state's Division of Motor Vehicles office, but these individuals will need birth certificates to prove their identity. According to MSNBC, more than 300,000 registered Wisconsin voters, especially blacks and Latinos, lack the necessary identification. 

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