The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, sent the case back down to the lower court for consideration of the appropriate remedy consistent with the opinion.
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Texas elections officials may not be able to enforce a voter ID requirement this fall, as a panel federal judges has agreed with a lower court and found the requirement to be discriminatory against racial minorities.
Wednesday’s ruling was the fourth to find Texas’s law disenfranchised more than 600,000 registered voters because they lacked one of a handful of state-issued ID cards.
The Obama administration took the unusual step of deploying the weight of the U.S. Justice Department into the case when it challenged the law.
The state relied on a 2008 Supreme Court decision upholding an IN law that recognized a state’s interest IN requiring voter IDs to maintain a fair and honest voting system.
“Today an unelected federal court struck down key components of Texas’ Voter ID law against the will of the people”.
“We have repeatedly proven – using hard facts – that the Texas voter ID law discriminates against minority voters”. “The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on the right side of history”. The 5th Circuit’s most conservative members offered a stern rebuke to the decision in dissenting opinions, opening up the possibility that Texas could seek a stay on this emergency interim relief. Others target rules for registering, early voting and provisional voting, such as the wide-ranging North Carolina law that caused confusion and long lines in March’s primary.
“Voter fraud is real, and it undermines the integrity of the election process”, Abbott said in a written statement.
Because of that split decision, the appeals court suggested that the law should be softened, though not struck down. All of those IDs had to include a photo of the potential voter, with some exemptions (such as a religious objection to being photographed).
Thus opponents of the law, including Democratic politicians and lawmakers, say that it serves to discriminate against minorities in the southern states who typically vote for the Democratic Party.
“We acknowledge the charged nature of accusations of racism, particularly against a legislative body, but we must also face the sad truth that racism continues to exist in our modern American society despite years of laws created to eradicate it”, the court said.
Challengers as well as Democrats who said the law was a bid to suppress Democratic votes cheered the ruling.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit reviewing that decision put aside the district judge’s ruling that the law was enacted by the Texas legislature with a discriminatory objective, which would have required striking down the law.
The ruling is a victory for voting rights advocates. “Preventing voter fraud is essential to accurately reflecting the will of Texas voters during elections”, he said.
“It would be untenable to permit a law with a discriminatory effect to remain in operation” for the coming election, wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Catharina Haynes for the majority, made of up five judges nominated by Democratic presidents and four nominated by Republicans. But with only eight justices now sitting on the bench, it is improbable that the measure would be upheld. But the Supreme Court intervened to keep the law in effect for the 2014 elections, where it caused problems for some voters.
The law’s path through the courts has been winding.
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Many other leaders also felt that Wednesday’s ruling was a vote against electoral integrity.
