Federal Judge Strikes Down Controversial Texas Voter ID Law

AUSTIN, TX — In arguably the most strongly worded condemnation of the state's controversial Voter ID law to date, a federal judge on Monday ruled the measure was enacted in 2011 with the intent of discriminating against black and Hispanic voters.

Corpus Christi Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas struck down the Voter ID law and raised the possibility the state's election procedures could be put back under federal oversight, as the New York Times and other media outlets reported.

Such federal oversight is called "pre-clearance," which would require Texas officials to run by proposed rules at the federal level before enacting them as a safeguard to prevent marginalization of voter blocs.

Passed in 2011, the state's Voter ID law is one of the toughest in the nation. The judge reiterated hers and the opinion of other legal scholars that the law violates the Voting Rights Act in that it allows voting only for those possessing a state-issued government identification, a likelihood lessened in minority populations.

Critics also point to hunting licenses as allowable voting identification in Texas as another example of the state's selection of eligible voters, positing that ID as more predominant in a conservative, gun-espousing culture than one prominently found in minority communities.

Previous legal rulings have forced Texas to allow other forms of identification (a paycheck stub or utility bill, for example) and produce public service announcements, in both English and Spanish, alerting to the allowable forms of secondary IDs.

But Texas Republicans have aggressively sought reinstatement of the law as originally written after it was forced to make allowances for voters not possessing a state-issue form of identification. Ramos previously made a similar ruling before Texas appealed the ruling. The case then moved to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans as a result, where jurists there found Ramos had relied too much on the states's history of enacting discriminatory voting measures— labeling such evidence as "infirm" — while asking her to reconsider the question of discriminatory intent, as the Times reported.

On Monday, she did so: “Upon reconsideration and a re-weighing of the evidence in conformity with the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, the court holds that the evidence found ‘infirm’ did not tip the scales,” Ramos wrote in her Monday ruling.

Texas lawmakers — chiefly Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have aggressively promoted reinstatement of the original Voter ID law — had not reacted to the judge's ruling as of early Monday evening.

But those who've long opposed the state's voting rules applauded Monday's ruling.

"Today's victory belongs to all Texans, for state-sponsored discrimination undermines the legitimacy of our elections," State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez said. "Although this ruling is gratifying, let me be clear: the Mexican American Legislative Caucus told the Texas Legislature in 2011 that SB 14 would discriminate against Latinos. Republicans shoved it down our throats anyway."

Rodriguez added that the ruling advances the belief that such laws should not be allowed to pass in the future, as they often take years to resolve.

"We cannot afford to allow politically-motivated majorities in the Legislature to disregard the Constitution and pass discriminatory legislation, leaving civil rights advocates to fight uphill battles for years against the taxpayer-funded Texas Attorney General's Office for any chance at recourse," Rodriguez said.

Those supporting the draconian Voter ID law have justified it as a safeguard against election fraud, despite evidence of rampant abuse at the ballot box. Historical analysis has consistently proved the negligible nature of voter fraud in the state, with some researchers determining the exponentially greater likelihood to be struck by lightning in Texas than to come across abuse.

Patch will update this story as more details emerge and once GOP lawmakers supporting the stringent voting rules react.

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