Legal battle over voting rights resumes
U.S. sues Texas, others states next
WASHINGTON — As the nation marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” speech, a new fight over voting rights has erupted.
In June, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Thursday, the Justice Department filed the first of what could be several lawsuits against a states have have enacted voter laws. The first suit targeted Texas’ voter identification law, and a similar suit against North Carolina is almost certain. Other states, too, could face federal legal challenges over their actions in the wake of the high court’s decision.
Congress, if it’s up to the task, could also get messy trying to partially restore the guts of the landmark 1965 law.
The fights to come will span many fronts, including several of the 33 states that have passed voter identification laws. The separate conflicts, moreover, will inevitably cross-pollinate. One key lawmaker, tellingly, believes the federal action in Texas will “make it much more difficult” to get Voting Rights Act revisions through an already divided Congress.
And, as in any global conflict, strategic thinking could pay dividends.
“I’m sure the Department of Justice will pick its spots carefully,” election law expert Daniel Tokaji, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, said. “These aren’t easy cases.”
Beyond the legal debate, however, the controversy has political ramifications, as well.
In the Justice Department’s 15-page lawsuit targeting the Texas voter ID law, signed by Houstonbased Assistant U. S. Attorney Daniel D. Hu, the department deployed arguments potentially applicable against other states, as well. The Texas law, Hu wrote, would “deny equal opportunities for Hispanic and African-American voters to participate in the political process, resulting in a denial of the right to vote.”
The Texas law requires voters to present a government-issued photo identification; student IDs, for instance, no longer count. Critics say this effectively shuts out many, particularly the poor and minorities, who may have to travel a great distance to the Texas state offices that issue the identification cards.
Responding in turn, Texas officials, likewise, foreshadow a common state defense.
“Voter IDs have nothing to do with race,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stated. “The Obama administration continues to ignore the 10th Amendment and repeated Supreme Court decisions upholding states’ authority to enforce voter identification and redistricting laws.”
The 10th Amendment declares that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution … are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” These state powers include “the power to regulate elections,” the Supreme Court has concluded.
Thirty-three states have passed various kinds of voter identification laws, and state legislators keep tinkering. Most recently, on Aug. 12, North Carolina’s governor signed an elections package that includes strict new voter ID requirements.
Mississippi and Arkansas, recently freed from strict Justice Department control, have their own strict voter ID measures that could raise federal hackles, as well.