And see my earlier post on the case, which begins:
In what I consider to be a fundamentally disingenuous analysis by 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones, a divided 5th Circuit panel has not only held that Texas’s replacement voter id law (enacted in response to an earlier finding, upheld by the 5th Circuit that its original strict voter id law violated the Voting Rights Act) is legal. It also has essentially precluded the district court from putting Texas back under federal supervision for its voting rules based on a finding of intentional discrimination in voting on the basis of race. Judge Higginbotham’s concurrence makes nice noises about the “race or party” question I have been writing about for a long time, but in the end he does not appear to disagree with Judge Jones’s conclusion that the district court cannot put Texas back under preclearance based on an earlier finding of racially discriminatory intent. (Perhaps the plaintiffs can seek clarification on rehearing on this point, and get Judge Higgenbotham to open this back up.)
This ruling is likely to stand, because, despite the persuasiveness of Judge Graves’s dissent, the Fifth Circuit’s partisan balance has changed since the last go at this case, and an en banc process is likely to be unsuccessful, and the Supreme Court is unlikely to get involved either.