Student cards again barred as ID at Indiana polls as federal appeals court halts prelim injunction
A federal appeals court on April 20 stayed a district court order that had allowed student IDs for voting in Indiana’s May 5 primary. The ruling restores application of a 2025 state law barring IDs issued by educational institutions while the state’s appeal of the injunction proceeds.
A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a ruling made last week that allowed student identification cards to be used for voting in Indiana’s May 5 primary election.
On Monday (April 20), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit granted a stay of a preliminary injunction that had been issued six days earlier by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young. The injunction had barred enforcement of a 2025 state law, which prohibited the use of IDs issued by state educational institutions as voter identification.
The appeals court’s order on Monday means the law (Senate Bill 10) will remain in effect while the appeal of the district court’s ruling proceeds.
Judge Young issued the preliminary injunction on April 14, about a week after early voting for Indiana’s primary had started on April 7. The order required election officials to accept qualifying student IDs at polling places, despite the new law.
State election officials moved quickly to challenge the ruling. On April 16, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office filed an emergency motion in the Seventh Circuit in an effort to halt the injunction while the appeal is pending.
The state argued that the district court’s order improperly changed election rules after voting had already begun, citing a U.S. Supreme Court precedent that cautions courts against altering election procedures close to an election.
Plaintiffs in the case include the advocacy groups Count US IN and Women4Change Indiana, along with Indiana University student Josh Montagne. They opposed the stay, arguing that the ruling simply restored a practice Indiana had followed for nearly two decades, during which student IDs meeting statutory requirements were accepted as voter identification.
Montagne, one of the plaintiffs, was able to vote using his Indiana University student ID, during the three-day window last week when it was legal to do so.
The dispute centers on Senate Bill 10, enacted in April 2025. The law amended Indiana’s voter identification statute to exclude documents issued by educational institutions, even if they otherwise meet the law’s requirements for name, photograph, and expiration date.
Plaintiffs contend the change burdens young voters and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Twenty-Sixth Amendment’s prohibition on age-based discrimination in voting.
The district court agreed that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the law imposes a significant burden on students and young voters, and it temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement.
With the Seventh Circuit now granting a stay, the injunction is suspended while the case proceeds. That means student IDs will not be accepted as voter identification under Indiana law.
Monday’s order staying the injunction was issued by a three-judge panel consisting of Chief Judge Michael B. Brennan and Circuit Judges Michael Y. Scudder and Joshua P. Kolar.
With the stay now in place, the student-ID ban will remain in effect, while the state’s appeal of the preliminary injunction ins pending.
The court indicated that the reasoning behind the decision for stay would come within two business days.
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