Wednesday’s ruling by a federal appeals court against Texas’s voter ID law looks likely to lower a massive barrier to voting that had threatened to disenfranchise large numbers of the state’s minority voters. The ruling also offers a stinging rebuke to state lawmakers and officials who enacted and defended the law. And its cogent dismantling of many of the key claims advanced by backers of strict ID laws — all the more remarkable coming from a conservative-leaning court — could have implications beyond the Lone Star State. Still, exactly what happens next — and what it all means for voters this November — remains somewhat up in the air.
The 9-6 opinion from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t give the plaintiffs everything they wanted. It did uphold a district court’s 2014 finding that the law had a discriminatory effect in violation of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for Texas’s blacks and Hispanics to vote than it is for whites. But it told the district court to reconsider the question of whether Texas intended to racially discriminate, and it overturned the district court’s finding that the law was an unconstitutional poll tax. Most importantly, rather than striking down the law, the appeals court left it to the district court to fashion a remedy, saying it should be narrowly tailored to solving the problem, while respecting the intent of the legislature.
Voting rights advocates are taking heart from the fact that the 2014 district court ruling from Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, an Obama appointee, amounted to a sweeping and, in places, impassioned denunciation of the ID measure. So whatever remedy Gonzales Ramos comes up with is unlikely to go easy on the law.
“I fully expect the district court to come up with a remedy as quickly as possible, and one that effectively affords relief for the discriminatory effects of the law,” said Gerald Hebert, the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, which helped bring the challenge.
Full Article: Texas Voter ID Ruling Offers Stinging Rebuke to Law’s Backers – NBC News.
