This is the very conservative 5th Circuit, which indicates that SCOTUS is likely to uphold. Just in time for next year's election!
A federal appeals court struck down Texas' voter ID law on Wednesday in a victory for the Obama administration, which had taken the unusual step of bringing the weight of the U.S. Justice Department to fight new Republican-backed mandates at the ballot box.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2011 law carries a "discriminatory effect" and violates one of the remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act -- the heart of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.
Texas was allowed to use the voter ID law during the 2014 elections, thereby requiring an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters to have a photo ID.
Section 2 of the landmark civil rights law required opponents to meet a far higher threshold and prove that Texas intentionally discriminated against minority voters."We conclude that the district court did not reversibly err in determining that SB 14 violates Section 2 by disparately impacting minority voters," the court wrote.
