“Federal court questions whether Texas voter ID law can offer accommodations”

WaPo:

With the U.S. Supreme Court watching, judges on a federal appeals court here Tuesday questioned whether accommodations could be made to protect minority voters and still save Texas’s strictest-in-the-nation voter ID law in time for the presidential contest in November.

There did not seem to be much support for striking down the law or blocking its use among the 15 judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit who heard oral arguments Tuesday morning.

But several questioned why Texas did not have more fallback provisions — as other states do — for voters who lacked the kinds of identification that the state requires.

On this idea of “softening” harsh voter id laws judicially, see my Softening Voter ID Laws Through Litigation: Is it Enough?, Wisconsin Law Review Forward (forthcoming 2016) (draft available).

 

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