APPEALS COURT FIND TEXAS’ VOTER ID LAW VIOLATES VOTING RIGHTS ACT
A Federal Appeals Court has ruled on Wednesday that Texas’ voter identification law violates the U.S Voting Rights Act.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues a involved 49 page opinion that approved part of the ruling by a U.S District Court in Corpus Christi, and sends the other portion back for further review in a lower court.
The effect of the ruling says that Texas can no longer enforce the voter ID law, a battle that began in 2011 when the Republican-led legislature enacted the law, which requires one of several forms of government-issued ID to cast a ballot.
The case is almost certain to eventually be sent to the Supreme Court. Texas is further along the appellate process than any other state that is being challenged with an active voter ID challenge.
Civil Rights Groups and the Justice Department attempted to block the law in the U.S District Court in Corpus Christi. Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, an Obama appointee, ruled in 2014 that SB14 “creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.”
Ramos also ruled that the law “constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax.”
The case can now be appealed to the full 5th Circuit Court or directly to the Supreme Court.