A federal judge ruled Monday that Texas' 2011 voter identification law was passed with discriminatory intent, in another blow to the state in a six-year legal battle over the legislation.
Last year, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law discriminated against Latinos and other minorities but did not say whether it was intended to be discriminatory. It sent the case back down to a district court to reconsider that question. U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos ruled that it was.
In her opinion, Gonzalez Ramos said plaintiffs had proved that "a discriminatory intent was at least one of the substantial or motivating factors" behind the passage of the law and that it had been up to the state to prove it would have passed without its discriminatory purpose.
"The State has not met its burden," Gonzalez Ramos wrote. "Therefore, this Court holds, again, that SB 14 was passed with a discriminatory purpose."
Plaintiffs in the case, many of whom are voting-rights advocates and minority Democratic lawmakers, praised the court's ruling.
"Today's ruling is a crucial step in the six-year journey towards justice for Texas voters since this restrictive voter ID law was passed," Danielle Lang, deputy director of voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center, which represents voters in the case, said in a written statement.
"Judge Ramos was absolutely correct in her judgment that this law was designed to harm minority voters and cannot stand," Lang said. "SB 14 was expertly crafted to harm minority voters in order to minimize their voice just as their political power was growing. Legislators must respond to their electorate, not silence their voters."
State Attorney General Ken Paxton's office could not be reached for comment.
Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement that the court confirmed that "Texas Republicans intentionally designed their Voter ID law to attack the sacred voting rights of Texans."
"It is disgusting and shameful that Republicans have worked so hard to keep Texas' diverse new majority away from the polls," Hinojosa said. "Sadly, the damage has been done. For the past several years, Texas Republicans stripped over 600,000 Texans of their right to vote through the discriminatory Voter ID law."
