"My first thought when I learned of this bureaucratic cash grab was that the Obama administration mindset had taken over the Department of Public Safety leadership."
—Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves criticizing DPS Commissioner Albert Santa Cruz for imposing $6 administrative photo fee for concealed-carry gun permits.
Why it stinks: One of the objections civil-rights leaders often raise about voter ID is the it is tantamount to an unconstitutional tax. Even if the state-issued IDs are free, the argument goes, voters have to expend time and money taking the extra step of going to a circuit clerk's office, which might require taking a little bit of time off of work.
Of all the statewide officials, Reeves hasn't been the most rabid voter ID supporter. On the other hand, he didn't exactly stand in its way, as he has done in other instances when he saw fit. But how Reeves can justify getting testy about a $6 fee trampling on 2nd Amendment gun rights while remaining silent about voter ID's suppression of constitutional voting rights is anybody's guess.
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