Texas Voter ID Law Violates U.S. Voting Rights Act: 5th Circuit Court Of Appeals [UPDATED]

AUSTIN, TX — The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down the state's voter ID law — widely considered the most restrictive in the country — as being in non-compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

The ruling affirms previous rulings that the tactics of the ID law violate voters' rights, including guidelines strictly dictating the type of photo identification deemed acceptable in order to vote in elections.

"I am pleased with today's decision by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holding that Texas's 2011 photographic voter identification law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. "This decision affirms our position that Texas's highly restrictive voter ID law abridges the right to vote on account of race or color and orders appropriate relief before yet another election passes."

Today's ruling is a big win for voting rights advocates who have railed against the draconian Texas law deciding who is able to vote in elections. Critics pointed to the outlined requirements as inspired not as an effort to weed out voter fraud, as its proponents suggest, but inspired by political ideology.

Those decrying the 2011 voter ID law pushed by conservative lawmakers say it is really meant to exclude a broad bloc of voters predisposed to vote Democratic rather than Republican, its restrictions making voting especially difficult for a low-income minority segment.

As an example, critics of the law have pointed to the acceptability of a concealed handgun license as photo ID to vote. Gun rights are a key plank to the conservative platform, and the inclusion of a concealed handgun license serves to illustrate the inspiration behind the voter ID law, critics have maintained.

Among required forms of photo ID under the law now struck down by the court are: a state driver's license or ID card, a U.S. passport, a military ID card or a U.S citizenship certificate with a photo. The resulting disqualification of some hoping to vote but without those ID cards has led to disenfranchisement of many voters, critics have maintained.

The state's restrictive Voter ID law has garnered challenges not just from grass-roots advocates but from the U.S. Department of Justice as well. The appeals court agreed to hear the case back in March.

Its defenders have posited the restrictive Voter ID law in Texas as a safeguard against voter fraud. But studies undertaken to determine the level of such fraud showed it to be nearly non-existent — contrary to conservative lawmakers who claimed it was widespread.

An examination yielded four cases of proven voter fraud from 2000 to 2014 — a handful of cases among 72 million votes, or one in 18 million. According to the National Weather Service, the likelihood of being struck by lightning in Texas is greater than finding a case of voter fraud in the state.

Despite the negligible existence of fraudulent voting in the state, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement Wednesday afternoon insisting the law was crafted to ward off voter fraud.

"It is imperative that the State government safeguards our elections and ensures the integrity of our democratic process," Paxton said in the prepared statement. "Preventing voter fraud is essential to accurately reflecting the will of Texas voters during elections, and it is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety."

Paxton explained the Texas Legislature enacted the voter ID law in 2011 through Senate Bill 14 (SB14), requiring voters to present government-issued photo ID when voting at the polls. Under the law, the acceptable forms of photo ID are: a Texas Driver's license; free Texas election identification certificate (EIC); Texas personal ID card; Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; U.S. military ID card; U.S. citizenship certificate; and U.S. passport.

Later, Gov. Greg Abbott also issued a statement with a reaction to the ruling, also predicated on the perceived prevalence of voter fraud in Texas.

"The 5th Circuit rightly reversed the lower court's finding of discriminatory purpose, but wrongly concluded the law had a discriminatory effect," Abbott's statement began. "Voter fraud is real, and it undermines the integrity of the election process. As Attorney General I prosecuted cases against voter fraud across the State, and Texas will continue to make sure there is no illegal voting at the ballot box."

State Sen. José Menéndez, a Democrat in San Antonio, had a decidedly different reaction to Wednesday's ruling. He said the development confirms the belief many share that the draconian law was meant to disenfranchise a large segment of voters.

"Today, the court affirmed that voting is a founding principal of our democracy and nothing shall abridge that right," he said in a prepared statement. "We knew from the beginning that Texas' voter ID law was meant to disenfranchise voters."

Menéndez broke down the significance of the ruling from an abstraction to its real-world implications: "The ruling will help the grandmother who no longer has her driver's license exercise her right to vote. It will allow the college student, who was barred from using a student ID to vote, access to their polling place. The court confirmed that this egregious law was put into place to oppress Texas voters. Laws that hinder the minority vote have no place in America."

He challenged Paxton to acknowledge the discriminatory effects of the law that the court affirmed, inferring the attorney general was pursuing a Quixotic mission in his self-described quest to root out voter fraud.

"The millions of dollars spent defending this unconstitutional law could have helped shore up Child Protective Services, replaced textbooks for Texas classrooms, or helped thousands of indigent seniors," Menéndez said. "I'm calling on General Paxton to stop chasing windmills and face the reality that this law discriminates against voters. It's all money flushed down the toilet on a 'solution' looking for a fictitious problem."