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Facebook WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a challenge to Indiana's voter identification law, setting up a confrontation between officials who claim such laws prevent voter fraud and challengers who say ID requirements unfairly block some people from voting. The case is to be argued in early 2008, and a decision is likely by June, in time for the presidential election in November. The Indiana law requires voters to show a government photo ID, such as a driver's license or passport. In January, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected claims by the state Democratic Party and civil rights groups that the law infringes on the voting rights of people without easy access to such IDs, particularly the poor and minorities. MORE HIGH COURT: Lethal injection on the docket Judge Richard Posner, writing for the majority in the 7th Circuit, said the law was a valid attempt to control fraud. He acknowledged that people who do not have photo IDs are "low on the economic ladder" and "more likely to vote for Democratic than Republican candidates." Judge Terrence Evans dissented, calling the law a "not-too-thinly-veiled attempt to discourage Election Day turnout by certain folks believed to skew Democratic." Richard Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said a ruling in the dispute could resolve difficult election-law issues. "Voter ID laws have been mired in partisan politics, and the court can now clarify how to balance concerns over voter fraud with potential disenfranchisement of poor voters," he said. Lawyer William Groth, representing the Indiana Democratic Party, said the 7th Circuit applied too lenient a constitutional standard to the law and failed to account for its burden on voter rights. He said Indiana's law is "the most onerous in effect in the nation." "There's no right more important than the right to vote," said Ken Falk of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. "If recent history teaches us anything, it's that each vote matters." Voter ID requirements are a relatively new phenomenon, spawned partly by allegations of fraud raised during the election in 2000. Since 2002, a majority of states have adopted voter ID regulations. Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter said the state's 2005 law responded to fraud concerns, and he contended the challengers had not produced "a single actual voter who could not or would not vote because of the voter ID law." Share this story: Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Reddit Facebook Enlarge By Tim Dillon, USA TODAY U.S. Supreme Court justices are, l-r, front row, Anthony M. Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Antonin Scalia and David Souter; second row, Stephen G. Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito. Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.