Court Rules Texas May Use Voter-ID Law

A federal appeals court says Texas can enforce its strong voter-identification requirements in the upcoming November election, temporarily blocking last week’s lower-court ruling that the law was an unconstitutional effort to suppress the vote among blacks and Latinos. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not consider whether the lower-court decision that condemned the law should stand. Instead, it said that with early voting starting Oct. 20, a change in rules could cause confusion among voters and poll workers. The contested Texas law, enacted in 2011, requires that voters show certain types of state-issued identification. That is more restrictive than under previous rules, which allowed voters to use such evidence as electric bills. Opponents of the law said they were considering appealing the finding to the U.S. Supreme Court.