Supreme Court rejects Texas’ voter ID appeal
GOP fails in appeal to keep requirement to show ID at polls
The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal from Texas officials seeking to restore the state’s strict voter ID law.
AUSTIN — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive Texas’ controversial voter identification law, dashing for now the hopes of the state’s Republican leaders to overturn a lower-court decision that the rule discriminated against black and Hispanic citizens.
The decision could mean that the Texas Legislature, which is now in session for five months, could try to fix the legal issues with the law on its own. But officials who were reviewing the ruling said the most likely course will be to let pending appeals continue in lower courts.
Without dissent, the high court let stand a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last July that found the Texas law ran afoul of a federal statute that bars discriminatory practices in elections. The justices sent the issue back to a lower court to decide how to fix the law.
In a statement explaining the court’s decision not to hear an ap-
peal in the case at this time, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that litigation on the law is continuing in lower courts. Although there was “no barrier to our review,” he stated, all the legal issues can be raised on appeal at a later time.
In a 9-6 decision, a special 15-judge panel of the New Orleans-based appeals court ruled that the Texas law violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. That court directed a lower court to review claims by the plaintiffs that the law was intended to be discriminatory, rather than just having a discriminatory effect.
A hearing on that part of the case by a Corpus Christi federal judge had been scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed until Feb. 28 after the U.S. Department of Justice late Friday sought time for the Trump administration to review whether to continue challenging the Texas requirements.
When that case is decided, appeals are expected.
‘Continue to fight’
State officials said they were reviewing the decision and would comment later in the day.
“The job of the courts is to protect our fundamental rights,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Project at the Brennan Center that represents the Texas NAACP and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the case.
“When the case comes before it, the Supreme Court has an important opportunity to affirm and uphold this country’s promise that Americans will be free from racial discrimination when they step into the voting booth.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he was disappointed but optimistic.
“Chief Justice Roberts made it very clear that the case will be an even stronger posture for Supreme Court review after further proceedings in lower courts,” he said. “Texas enacted a common sense voter ID law to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and we will continue to fight for the law in the district court, the Fifth Circuit, and if necessary, the Supreme Court again.”
Texas’ voter ID law has been the subject of litigation for years.
In 2012, a federal appeals court in Washington first blocked the implementation of the law requiring voters to show a photo identification before they could cast a ballot. That court ruled that the law had a disproportionately negative effect on minority citizens in Texas.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in a separate case, allowed Texas to implement its law, which it quickly did. The Texas State Conference of the NAACP and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas House challenged the law in federal court, and a trial in 2014 showed that the state’s ID requirement would create discriminatory barriers to voting.
U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ruled the Texas law unconstitutional, but the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it to remain in effect for the 2014 election.
‘Tool to silence voices’
Other reactions were supportive of Monday’s decision.
“It has been an incredible waste of taxpayer monies and state resources to challenge what any reasonably objective person knows — that the law is plainly and simply discriminatory against racial and ethnic minorities,” said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP. “Judges appointed by presidents of both political parties have so held repeatedly.”
“There is no more fundamental American right than the right to vote, and the Supreme Court protected it by declining to hear this case,” said Jose Garza, legal counsel for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. “Multiple courts, including the Fifth Circuit, have reviewed this bill and seen it for what it is — a tool to silence the voices of Latinos, African Americans, and elderly or poor voters. There was no basis for questioning their conclusions, and the Supreme Court affirmed that today.”