In the 9-5 decision, the majority opinion drafted by Judge Catharina Haynes found that the law has a disproportionate impact on African-American and Latino voters.
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With Texas lawmakers out of session until next year, the Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals in New Orleans ordered a trial court judge to explore interim remedies before the November presidential election, in order to give reasonable access to those voters lacking the qualified ID cards.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that a controversial voter ID law in Texas violates the Voting Rights Act, marking a significant victory for advocates who have fought the law for years, the Texas Tribune reported.
“Last summer, a three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit ‘ruled unanimously that the law does not equate to a “poll tax” but does discriminate against minority voters, ‘ as the Two-Way reported”.
The ruling also sent back for reconsideration the question of whether Texas legislators had acted with a discriminatory goal in passing the law in 2011, a finding that would have forced new judicial oversight of any changes in Texas election rules.
A federal appeals court ruled against Texas’ voter ID law on Wednesday, knocking down what was considered the most restrictive law of its kind in the country.
The U.S. Department of Justice brought one of the lawsuits against the Texas voting law, under former Attorney General Eric Holder.
The appeals court partially upheld that 2014 district court ruling, by Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, which found that the law made it harder for blacks and Hispanics to vote.
“We can not ignore that in passing SB 14, the Legislature carefully selected the types of IDs that would be required to vote”, the majority wrote.
There was a Supreme Court deadline of Wednesday to announce a decision.
Critics, including voting rights groups and numerous state’s most prominent Democrats, have long contended that the law had discriminatory effects against Hispanic and African-American voters and have been challenging it since its passage.
The law has been challenged in court nearly from the moment it was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011 and has now had a series of major court decisions go against it.
Although the court found some of the arguments made in previous court cases to be legitimate, “there remains evidence to support a finding that the cloak of ballot integrity could be hiding a more invidious goal”, Haynes wrote.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Texas and 25 other states to block President Barack Obama’s program from shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and granting them federal benefits without Congressional approval.
Houston-based True the Vote argues that a weakened voter ID law requires that a “new generation” of election volunteers are necessary.
The six dissenters issued a scathing critique of the majority decision, especially a finding that there is “more than a scintilla” of evidence to support a finding the law not only has a discriminatory effect, but was passed by the Texas legislature with a racially discriminatory intent. “There is no more sacred right as an American than the right to vote”.
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“It is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety”, Paxton said in a statement. That appears to opens the door for a future legal challenge that Texas’ law deliberately sought to hinder its poor and minority citizens from voting.
