Texas-sized news out of the Lone Star State. A federal court has struck down Texas’s voter ID law. It violates the Voting Rights Act, it violates the constitutional prohibition on poll taxes, it violates the constitutional prohibition of unjustified burdens, it violates the constitutional prohibition on intentional racial discrimination: indeed, in 147 pages of opinion, there’s little that the ID law doesn’t violate.
Also extremely important: the court expressly finds intentional discrimination relevant to bail-in under the Voting Rights Act, and says it will consider a bail-in order in the days to come. If the court indeed follows up with a bail-in order, Texas could become the first state brought back under a preclearance regime since Shelby County.
I’ve said before that in Texas, the case for federal supervision under the Voting Rights Act flips “New York, New York” on its head: If you can make it anywhere, you can make it there. Stay tuned for appellate proceedings on this case … and also an impact on the pending redistricting litigation, where there are similar claims of intentional discrimination lurking.