Georgia's new voter-identification bill -- which had required citizens to pay $20 or more for a special ID card to vote if they didn't have a driver's licensce -- hit a little snag in court yesterday.

In a damning 123-page decision, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy struck down the bill that had been pushed through by Republican lawmakers earlier this year, noting its uncanny similarity to Jim Crow laws. Here's an excerpt from his decision:

The photo ID requirement unduly burdens the right of many properly registered Georgia voters to vote, is a poll tax, and has the likely effect of causing many of those voters to forego voting or of precluding those voters from voting at the polls. Because the right to vote is a fundamental right, removing the undue burdens on that right imposed by the photo ID requirement serves the public interest. This factor therefore counsels in favor of granting plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction."

The plaintiffs included the NAACP, which pointed out in a press release some of the flaws in the bill, such as the fact that there was not a single office where the ID cards were for sale in the entire city of Atlanta:

Recent census data shows that African Americans in Georgia are nearly five times less likely than whites to have access to a motor vehicle, thus would be less likely to have a photo ID. Moreover, there are only 56 locations in Georgia that issue the primary identification required by the new law. Many of Georgia's citizens in rural areas who do not have accessible transportation may need to travel through two counties to reach a Department of Motor Vehicle Services (DMVS) office.

Georgia recently eliminated the only two DMVS locations inside the City of Atlanta, the state capital where a substantial number of African Americans live. A person living Atlanta must now travel 10-15 miles to access a DMVS office.

UPDATE: For those doubting whether Supreme Court nominations are important, GOP state senator Don Balfour drives the issue home:

"We'll appeal it until the Supreme Court makes a decision. Hopefully by then the president will have a good conservative court up there that understands the will of the people."