Appeals Court Strikes Down Texas Restrictive Photo ID Law

Texas voters scored a major victory yesterday when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found the state's restrictive photo ID requirement violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The ruling means Texas's ID law, the strictest in the country, was found to be invalid.

CWA District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings said the Texas decision marks the third federal court ruling that is calling for an end to political efforts to turn back the clock and block citizens – especially people of color, the elderly and poorer Americans – from exercising their right to vote.

"So many people struggled, suffered and shed blood to win this right," Cummings said. "The court is saying, 'let the people vote; stop putting obstacles in their way.' That's what our democracy should be about."

The Court sent the case back down to the district court for further consideration of the claim that the law intentionally discriminates against minority voters.

In October 2014, following a lengthy trial, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos struck down Texas's strict photo ID law on the grounds that the Texas legislature enacted the law with the purpose of discriminating against minority voters. According to Judge Ramos's ruling, the ID requirement denied African Americans and Latinos the same opportunity as white voters to cast a ballot, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and imposed unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote.

She also found approximately 608,470 registered voters do not have the kind of photo ID required under Texas's law.

Texas appealed the ruling, and the law was allowed to stand and disenfranchise voters during the November 2014 election while the appeal was pending. The ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Ramos's decision that the law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Texas is not the only state with a major lawsuit challenging voting restrictions. In North Carolina, a trial just wrapped up that will determine the fate of several voting restrictions passed in an omnibus bill in 2013. Since the 2010 election, 21 states have new laws in place making it harder to vote, and 15 states will have new rules in effect for the first time in a presidential election in 2016.