5th Circuit Reverses District Court Order Which Would Have Made It Easier for Texas Voters to “Cure” Signature Mismatch; Case Shows Danger of Pursing These Cases with Increasingly Conservative Judiciary

You can find the opinion by Judge Smith (along with a concurrence by Judge Higgenbotham at this link.

This case is a nice illustration of the dangers of bringing these suits seeking federal court orders easing voting during a pandemic. Not only do such suits face a greater chance of reversal as they work their way up the increasingly conservative appellate food chain. They run the risk of getting really bad voting rights precedent on the books. In this case, the opinion by Judge Jerry Smith will have very bad implications across a host of voting rights cases (and not just on this particular issue). The discussion of voter fraud is especially troublesome.

Update: Sam Levine points out that the case was filed in 2019, so it doesn’t fit directly into pandemic litigation. Still, the general point stands.

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