evince
Truthmatters
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...xas-voter-id-law-intentionally-hurt-hispanics
A federal judge ruled Texas lawmakers intentionally made it harder for poor Hispanic and blacks to vote when they passed the nation’s strictest photo ID law in 2011.
U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos’s decision may put Texas back under federal supervision for all changes to its election policies, a step civil rights advocates are urging Ramos to take next.
Ramos previously rejected a joint request by Texas and the U.S. Justice Department -- which switched sides under the Trump administration -- to wait for the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to fix the law before making her decision.
The judge said waiting was pointless, as nothing the current legislature does or fails to do could change what lawmakers had in mind when they passed the voter ID law six years ago.
Texas’s law, one of several photo ID provisions passed by lawmakers in Republican-leaning states with the stated intention of combating alleged voter fraud, was declared illegally biased against minorities by a federal appeals court in July. Ramos was ordered to quickly tweak the law to let more voters participate in the November election while she considered more permanent fixes.
The appeals court also directed Ramos to re-examine evidence of the 2011 Legislature’s intention in passing the law. She found that Texas hadn’t proved lawmakers didn’t act with discriminatory intent.
A federal judge ruled Texas lawmakers intentionally made it harder for poor Hispanic and blacks to vote when they passed the nation’s strictest photo ID law in 2011.
U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos’s decision may put Texas back under federal supervision for all changes to its election policies, a step civil rights advocates are urging Ramos to take next.
Ramos previously rejected a joint request by Texas and the U.S. Justice Department -- which switched sides under the Trump administration -- to wait for the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to fix the law before making her decision.
The judge said waiting was pointless, as nothing the current legislature does or fails to do could change what lawmakers had in mind when they passed the voter ID law six years ago.
Texas’s law, one of several photo ID provisions passed by lawmakers in Republican-leaning states with the stated intention of combating alleged voter fraud, was declared illegally biased against minorities by a federal appeals court in July. Ramos was ordered to quickly tweak the law to let more voters participate in the November election while she considered more permanent fixes.
The appeals court also directed Ramos to re-examine evidence of the 2011 Legislature’s intention in passing the law. She found that Texas hadn’t proved lawmakers didn’t act with discriminatory intent.
