DISCRIMINATION

Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas Voter-ID Law

Ruled measure was “enacted with discriminatory intent.”

A federal judge has tossed out a Texas voter-ID law, ruling that it was “enacted with discriminatory intent—knowingly placing additional burdens on a disproportionate number of Hispanic and African-American voters.” U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, in Corpus Christi, granted a permanent injunction Wednesday, preventing the state from enforcing the original 2011 version of the measure, in addition to a version with loosened restrictions that was passed this year and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott just this summer. The original legislation, according to Ramos, violates the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. The new version, she found, cures neither the discriminatory intent nor the effect of the original measure.