The normally conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Texas' voter ID law violated the Voting Rights Act in that it intentionally discriminates against minorities. In striking down Texas' law, the Appeals Court upheld a lower court's determination that the 2011 law effectively blocked some 600,000 voters -- the vast majority of whom are minority -- from voting. The Texas law had infamously required one of seven approved state government forms of ID, including gun registration identification, but not state university IDs.
Several states with legislatures and governorships controlled by Republicans have passed voter suppression laws in recent years in an attempt to counter demographic trends in their states that favor Democrats. Laws where Republican politicians decide who will vote, rather than letting voters decide who to elect, exist in states like Wisconsin (for shame) and North Carolina. The shadowy Koch brothers-backed American Legislative Exchange Committee (ALEC) has been particularly active in past years in working with Rethuglicans in crafting and passing voter suppression laws. The Justice Department has been actively reviewing and challenging those laws when they violate citizens' right to vote, and they chalked up a victory yesterday.
