WASHINGTON???A federal court on Thursday blocked Texas from enforcing a strict new voter identification law, ruling that the mandate would disproportionately suppress turnout among eligible voters who are members of minority groups.
"The state of Texas enacted a voter ID law that ? at least to our knowledge ? is the most stringent in the country," the court wrote. "That law will almost certainly have retrogressive effect: It imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor, and racial minorities in Texas are disproportionately likely to live in poverty."
The 56-page ruling came days after another three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Texas Legislature had intentionally discriminated against Latino voters in drawing up new political maps for congressional and legislative districts, citing the same section of the Voting Rights Act.
Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general, called the voter ID decision "wrong on the law" and said that Texas would keep fighting.
"The state will appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, where we are confident we will prevail," said Abbott, who has also vowed to appeal the redistricting case.
Abbott also noted that the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of a voter ID law enacted by Indiana.
Texas, however, bears a higher burden under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Under that statute, jurisdictions that have a history of discriminating against minority voters must receive federal approval before making any change to their voting rules and it is up to the state to prove that its change will not dilute the voting power of members of minority groups.
Texas has also challenged the constitutionality of Section 5. The court's ruling Thursday addressed only whether the state had met its statutory burden.
In March, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division refused to grant preclearance to the Texas law, saying that the state had not met its burden. It cited data provided by the state showing that Latino voters were significantly less likely to have the sort of ID cards required under the new law than were non-Latino voters.
Texas then filed a lawsuit asking the court to allow it to enforce the new law, and there was a trial before the three-judge panel in July.
In unanimously ruling that the state had not met its burden, the court cited evidence that showed that voters who lack driver's licenses could be required to pay $22 to obtain underlying documents necessary to apply for a state ID card and that those in some counties would need to travel as many as 250 miles round trip to get the card. Registered minority voters were at least as likely as white ones to lack driver's licenses, and were more likely to be poor.
While opponents of voter ID laws celebrated the ruling as a broad victory for their cause, the ruling was narrowly focused on the Texas law and emphasized that it should not be read as implying that all voter ID laws should be blocked by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling cited with approval the Justice Department's decision to allow Georgia to implement a less-restrictive version of such a measure, saying the difference between the two state laws was "stark."
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