It’s been a long bumpy ride but Texas will finally get to use their voter ID law. In 2011 the Texas legislature passed SB-14 which a district court called discriminatory and on appeal to the 5th Circuit Court of appeals, the court ruled in the District Court’s favor and they laid out what parts of the law was unconstitutional.
Then the Texas legislature went back to work and passed SB-5. That bill addresses all the concerns over SB-14. However, the district court once again ruled that Texas could not use SB-5 in the 2018 election. Once again it was appealed to the 5th Circuit court and this time it overruled the district court and will allow Texas to use voter ID in 2018.
The 5th Circuit ruled that the district court could not rule on a law in 2017 (premature) on a law that wouldn’t be in operation until 2018. The court did say that their ruling does not dispose of any challenges in the future but that the plaintiffs would have to prove the new law had a discriminatory effect on the voting. The ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court but it would likely be after the November election before a hearing and a ruling could take place as the current session is already filled.
So, now it will be much harder for the Democrats to cheat. If SB-5 is finally approved by the Supreme Court, other states would then have a blueprint on how to write their own laws.
5th Circuit Court: Don't mess with #Texas' #VoterID law. https://t.co/ZkLuihzg6V
— PublicInterestLegal (@PILFoundation) April 27, 2018
Leading voter ID advocates were unsurprised but enthused by the ruling. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who served as vice chair of President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, told Breitbart News:
The decision of the Fifth Circuit is an illustration of what a good court ruling — one that strictly adheres to the plainly adheres to the plain meaning of the law and does not attempt to legislate from the Bench — looks like. The Texas photo ID law does not violate federal law or the United States Constitution in any respect.