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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    U.S. Supreme Court rejects Texas appeal over voter ID law

    U.S. Supreme Court rejects Texas appeal over voter ID law


    By Lawrence Hurley
    Reuters January 23, 2017
    32 Comments


    FILE PHOTO -- A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S., November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo More

    By Lawrence Hurley


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Texas seeking to revive the state's strict Republican-backed voter-identification requirements that a lower court found had a discriminatory effect on black and Hispanic people.


    The justices let stand a July 2016 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found that the 2011 Texas statute ran afoul of a federal law that bars racial discrimination in elections and directed a lower court to find a way to fix the law's discriminatory effects against minorities.


    There were no noted dissents from the high court's decision not to hear the case from any of the eight justices, but Chief Justice John Roberts took the unusual step of issuing a statement explaining why the case was not taken up, noting that litigation on the matter is continuing in lower courts.


    Roberts said that although there was "no barrier to our review," all the legal issues can be raised on appeal at a later time.


    The law, passed by a Republican-led legislature and signed by a Republican governor, had been considered one of the strictest of its type in the United States. It was challenged in court by the U.S. Justice Department under former President Barack Obama, civil rights groups and individual voters.

    Critics including the Obama administration had said the Texas law and similar statutes enacted in other Republican-governed states were tailored to make it harder for minorities including black and Hispanic voters, who tend to support Democrats, to cast ballots. Backers of these laws have said they are necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite little evidence of such fraud.

    The seven types of government-issued identification permitted under the law as proof of identity included a driver's license, a concealed handgun license, a military ID card and a U.S. passport but not state university ID cards or identification issued to obtain welfare benefits.


    A special 15-judge panel of the New Orleans-based appeals court ruled 9-6 that the Texas law had a discriminatory effect and violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The judges were divided differently on other parts of the ruling.


    The appeals court directed a federal district court to examine claims by the plaintiffs that the law was actually intended to be discriminatory, rather than merely having a discriminatory effect.


    A hearing on that part of the case was scheduled for Tuesday but has now been delayed following a request from President Donald Trump's administration. While Obama's administration had backed the challenge to the Texas requirements, the Trump administration could change course.


    Challengers of the Texas law have said that up to 600,000 people would be unable to vote if the law were fully in effect because of the large number of voters who lack the limited types of permissible identification.


    After the appeals court ruling, Texas and the plaintiffs struck a deal for a short-term remedy to be used for the November 2016 election.


    The Texas law is one of several passed by Republican legislatures since 2010. A similar law in North Carolina was struck down by a federal appeals court in July 2016.


    The office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott was not immediately available for comment.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-c...143829132.html

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  2. #2
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    SCOTUS Refuses to Hear Texas Voter ID Case — For Now

    by LANA SHADWICK
    23 Jan 2017
    Washington, D.C.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Texas’ appeal from an adverse ruling in the Texas voter ID case.

    The Texas Attorney General said after the U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear the case, “While we are disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court did not immediately take our case, Chief Justice Roberts made it very clear that the case will be an even stronger posture for Supreme Court review after further proceedings in lower courts. Texas enacted a common sense voter ID law to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and we will continue to fight for the law in the district court, the Fifth Circuit, and if necessary, the Supreme Court again.”

    Breitbart Texas reported the day before the U.S. Supreme Court’s order denying review of the case that a federal magistrate delayed the next hearing in the Texas voter ID case so that the Trump Administration would have time to discuss the case with the government’s lawyers. Federal lawyers filed a motion for continuance on Friday, January 20, asking the court to continue a hearing that had originally been set for January 24.

    In an effort to temporarily address the “discriminatory effects” of the law as originally written, the trial court enforced a remedy shortly before the 2016 Election that allowed voters without proper ID to sign affidavits attesting to the reason why they could not obtain one before casting a regular ballot.

    Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, who runs Texas’ largest voting jurisdiction, told Breitbart on Sunday, “The flawed solution pushed by the DOJ that we were forced to use last November allowed hundreds of illegal votes to be cast in Harris County.”

    The latest Supreme Court ruling sets the stage for the years-old lawsuit to continue down a track that could take many more months to resolve. The State of Texas is not without other options outside of the courtroom, however. Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams told Breitbart Texas that legislators can take the job of fixing the law into their own hands.

    “The Texas Legislature is also free to offer reforms that could serve to fix the ‘discriminatory effects’ of the law. A fix would be easy,” Adams noted.

    In July 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that Texas’ voter ID law had a discriminatory effect under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act but said the district court erred in finding discriminatory intent, as reported by Breitbart Texas. The 9-6 en banc ruling held that the law did not constitute a poll tax, either. The appellate court remanded the case to the district court to determine if the voter ID provisions were written to be intentionally discriminatory.

    The dissents to the opinion encompassed 100 pages. Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan nominated judge, wrote a dissent which was joined by four others. She wrote, “Requiring a voter to verify her identity with a photo ID at the polling place is a reasonable requirement widely supported by Texans of all races and members of the public belonging to both political parties.”

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott said immediately after the appellate court decision, “The 5th Circuit rightly reversed the lower court’s finding of discriminatory purpose, but wrongly concluded the law had a discriminatory effect. Voter fraud is real, and it undermines the integrity of the election process.”

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded to the Fifth Circuit’s ruling at the time, “It is imperative that the State government safeguards our elections and ensures the integrity of our democratic process. Preventing voter fraud is essential to accurately reflecting the will of Texas voters during elections, and it is unfortunate that this common-sense law, providing protections against fraud, was not upheld in its entirety.”

    The seven acceptable forms of photo ID under the law include the following: a Texas driver’s license; free Texas election identification card (EIC); Texas personal identification card; Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; U.S. military identification card; U.S. citizenship certificate; and a U.S. passport.

    http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...r-id-case-now/
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    From the first article:

    The appeals court directed a federal district court to examine claims by the plaintiffs that the law was actually intended to be discriminatory, rather than merely having a discriminatory effect.

    A hearing on that part of the case was scheduled for Tuesday but has now been delayed following a request from President Donald Trump's administration. While Obama's administration had backed the challenge to the Texas requirements, the Trump administration could change course.
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