Courtney Hostetler
Role at the time: Free Speech For People legal director and counsel for the plaintiff
Statement summary
Hostetler says HB 323 and the April 23 directive unconstitutionally burden young voters and warns that excluding student IDs could lead to young voters being turned away.
“HB 323 and Secretary Scanlan’s directive accomplish one thing: they unconstitutionally burden young voters to keep them from the polls ... The exclusion of these IDs will create chaos in the fall, creating a risk that thousands of young voters will be turned away from the polls. That’s by design—and it is both inexcusable and unconstitutional.”
Free Speech For People announces the August 11 lawsuit, separately challenging HB 323 and the broader April directive. Hostetler and Horton speak as counsel.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is the state's categorical exclusion of student IDs from consideration under existing identity-verification safeguards, which Secretary of State David Scanlan's April 23 directive set out. Hostetler says HB 323 and Scanlan's directive "unconstitutionally burden young voters" and that "The exclusion of these IDs will create chaos in the fall", calling the result "both inexcusable and unconstitutional", so we labeled it Condemned. The criticism names the directive, which imposed the exclusion, as well as the statute. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization; it loses because Hostetler attacks the exclusion itself rather than a description of it.