With no fanfare, the mandate issued from the 5th Circuit in the Texas voter ID case yesterday, ending the appeal. As I wrote back in April, the panel issued a “fundamentally disingenuous opinion” by Judge Edith Jones, which was really indefensible.
The last time there was rehearing en banc in this case, a divided 5th Circuit sitting en banc sided with the plaintiffs and found that Texas’s law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Judge Jones dissented.
But there have been so many new conservative picks for the 5th Circuit, and one loss of a more liberal judge to become an ambassador, that I suppose the plaintiffs figured there was no point in trying for more relief here (much less at the Supreme Court).
Don’t worry. Things will soon get much worse for voting rights.