Federal Judge Blocks Texas Voter ID Law
AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - A federal judge has once again thrown out Texas' voter ID law in the latest court defeat for state Republican lawmakers over voting rights.
U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos on Wednesday rejected a weakened version of the law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year.
Texas had made the changes after the same judge compared the original version to a "poll tax" on minorities.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is promising to appeal the ruling.
"Today's ruling is outrageous. Senate Bill 5 was passed by the people's representatives and includes all the changes to the Texas voter ID law requested by the 5th Circuit," Paxton said in a statement. "The U.S. Department of Justice is satisfied the amended voter ID law has no discriminatory purpose or effect. Safeguarding the integrity of elections in Texas is essential to preserving our democracy. The 5th Circuit should reverse the entirety of the district court's ruling."
But Gonazles Ramos, who first struck down the law in 2014, said Texas didn't go far enough with its changes and said that criminal penalties Texas attached to lying on the affidavit could have a chilling effect on voters who, fearful of making an innocent mistake on the form, simply won't cast a ballot.
Nor was she swayed by Texas clarifying under the revised law, known as Senate Bill 5, that both U.S. passport books and cards would be accepted. "This feature remains discriminatory because SB 5 perpetuates the selection of types of ID most likely to be possessed by Anglo voters and, disproportionately, not possessed by Hispanics and African-Americans," she wrote.
Texas has spent years fighting to preserve both the voter ID law — which was among the strictest in the U.S. -- and voting maps that were both passed by GOP-controlled Legislature in 2011. Earlier this month, a separate federal court found racial gerrymandering in Texas' congressional maps and ordered voting districts to be partially redrawn before the 2018 elections.
"From discriminatory gerrymandering to discriminatory voter ID laws, it has become entirely clear that Texas Republicans are rigging our election system," said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez issued the following statement regarding the voter ID ruling:
"The state's ploy has failed. No longer will the federal judiciary entertain AG Ken Paxton's hollow arguments in defense of Texas's discriminatory voter ID laws... The court confirmed what the plaintiffs have argued all along: SB 14 was designed to make it harder for minorities to vote without serving a compelling public interest."
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)