The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may require voters to produce a photo identification, upholding a Republican-backed law similar to Georgia's aimed at deterring voter fraud.

Opponents who contend Georgia's law places an unfair burden on voters say they will continue to pursue legal challenges. But the high court's 6-3 ruling approving Indiana's photo ID requirement makes it far more difficult for them to prevail.

The Indiana case presented the high court with the most politically divisive voting-rights case since Bush v. Gore, which sealed the 2000 presidential election of George W. Bush.

The partisan divide over voter IDs in Indiana, as well as elsewhere, was noteworthy, wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy. But Stevens said preventing fraud and inspiring voter confidence were legitimate goals of the law, regardless of who backed or opposed it.

Indiana's photo ID law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,' " Stevens wrote. "We cannot conclude that the statute imposes 'excessively burdensome requirements' on any class of voters."

Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito wrote separately agreeing with the outcome.

Proponents of the law in Georgia applauded the decision.

"I'm very pleased and feel somewhat vindicated," said state Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), who sponsored Georgia's initial voter ID law in 2005. "Georgia is now in the best shape possible when it comes to election law. It helps us have free and fair elections and as much as is humanly possible keeps elections free from voter fraud."

Secretary of State Karen Handel also praised the ruling, calling it a victory for the integrity of the election process.

"The photo ID requirement protects against in-person voter fraud and helps ensure that no vote is diluted by a vote cast illegally," she said.

In Georgia, government-issued photo IDs were required during elections last September and when 2 million Georgians cast votes in the February primaries. Counties reported no problems with the photo ID requirements, Handel said. She said all voters determined not to have driver's licenses were sent three mailings notifying them of the new requirement.

But state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), an outspoken critic of the law, vowed to continue challenging it in court.

"But this is simply not good news," he said of Monday's ruling. "It does not help at all."

Brooks said the law was never about voter fraud. "It's about suppression. And it's not a coincidence that the voters most affected by this law tend to vote Democrat —- African-Americans, women, minorities, labor."

So far, Georgia's law has been challenged in both Fulton County and federal court. The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed one suit last summer, finding the plaintiff had no standing to file suit.

In September, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy in Rome threw out the federal suit, praising the state's education efforts to let voters know about the new ID requirements. This suit was filed by a number of organizations, including Common Cause/Georgia, the League of Women Voters of Georgia, the NAACP and the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus.

The groups filed notice to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. But the case has been idle, awaiting the high court's Indiana ruling.

David Brackett, an Atlanta lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the evidence in the Georgia case is more developed than in Indiana's. "We think we have a stronger case and are not precluded by this ruling," he said Monday.

Co-counsel Neil Bradley, a lawyer with the ACLU voting rights project, agreed.

"With nearly 300,000 registered voters in Georgia without photo IDs, we have no doubt that some voters will continue to lose the right to vote under the current statute," he said.

Twenty-five states require some form of identification at the polls. Monday's decision also could spur efforts to pass similar laws in other states.

The Indiana law, like Georgia's passed in 2005, was backed by Republicans as a way to deter voter fraud. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed the law as unconstitutional and called it a thinly veiled effort to discourage elderly, poor and minority voters.

There is little history in Indiana of either in-person voter fraud —- of the sort the law was designed to thwart —- or of voters being inconvenienced by the law's requirements. For the overwhelming majority of voters, an Indiana driver's license serves as the identification.

Robert Schapiro, associate dean at Emory University's law school, said the ruling makes it difficult to mount a federal court challenge to the Georgia statute based on its overall impact on voters. "But it leaves open the possibility of a more narrowly focused challenge identifying particular burdens posed on particular individuals," Schapiro said, adding the ruling also has no direct impact on challenges to the law based on the Georgia Constitution.

UPDATE: THE STORY SO FAR

> Previously: In 2005 and again in 2006, after racially and politically charged debate, the state Legislature passed laws requiring Georgians to show a government-issued photo ID when voting. Lawsuits challenging the law were filed in both Fulton County and in federal court. The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed the Fulton case, and U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy in Rome threw out the federal lawsuit.

> The latest: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states can require voters to present photo IDs at the polls, validating an Indiana law similar to Georgia's.

> What's next: Georgia's voter ID law stays and is set to be enforced again in the November elections. Organizations challenging the Georgia law in federal court say they will appeal Murphy's decision. A state legislator predicted renewed challenges to the law based on the Georgia Constitution.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

 Associated Press
HALF OF STATES REQUIRE ID FOR CASTING VOTE 
Eighteen states require voters to present a form of identification to vote, and seven say that voters must show photo identification.
State requirements for voter identification: Color-coded and shaded areas of US map show: 
ID, photo not required: Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Delaware, Connecticut, Colorado, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennesee, Alabama, South Carolina and Alaska.
Photo ID required: South Dakota, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida and Hawaii.
No requirements: Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Mississippi, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. 
Note: All states have other ways for voters without identification to cast a vote.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures