A Fifth Circuit panel has declared Texas’s voter ID law unconstitutional, setting up a potentially huge Supreme Court battle.
The plaintiffs, including individual voters, civil rights groups and the Department of Justice, said it was discriminatory because a far greater share of poor people and minorities do not have these forms of identification and lack easy access to birth certificates or other documents needed to obtain them.
Student identifications, voter registration cards and utility bills are not considered acceptable proof of identity.
In a sweeping ruling in 2014, a federal district court in Texas agreed with the plaintiffs about the effect the law had on minority voters.
But it also said legislators had intentionally adopted a discriminatory law, a conclusion that could have led to a restoration of federal oversight over Texas voting laws.
Although the appeals court upheld the finding of discriminatory effect, the three-judge panel said the lower court must re-examine its conclusion that Texas acted with discriminatory purpose.
Texas could appeal to the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans or the United States Supreme Court.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott did not say whether the state would appeal.
But the governor did say, “Texas will continue to fight for its voter ID requirement to ensure the integrity of elections in the Lone Star State.”
So the good news is that the courts think the voter ID law is discriminatory, the question is whether or not Texas Republicans did it on purpose. We’ll see where Abbott goes next, but I would hope that the law would face an injunction for the 2016 election as a result and not be in effect.
Besides, Abbott has a few legal problems with his Attorney General, from what I understand…