Texas’ Strict Voter ID Law Will Get One Last Showdown Before The Election

Texas managed to convince the most conservative appeals court in the country to wipe out an August ruling that held that the state’s restrictive voter ID law violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In an order issued Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit announced that all the judges in active service on the court — 15 in all — agreed to reconsider the case all over again.

The earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court had found that Texas’ controversial S.B.14 law had a racially “discriminatory effect” on minority voters — a victory for voting rights advocates who were hoping to infuse new life into the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court effectively crippled it in 2013.

With Wednesday’s action, that ruling is no more. The 5th Circuit has notified Texas and the parties challenging the law that oral arguments in the case are expected in May.

Following that hearing, a ruling could come…READ MORE