When all is said and done, and the dust has settled I wonder if some nice wonk would crunch the numbers and tell us how much money the state of Texas has spent to deny the franchise to certain citizens? And also how much this fight has cost per resident of Texas.
Woo Hoo!
Yes yes yes!
Alas, Gorsuch was sworn in today so an appeal to the Supreme Court should make this victory short lived.
You know, you don’t know what the SCOTUS will do.
It’s been held discriminatory twice.
But thanks for the cold water anyway - I got to enjoy this for about 5 minutes.
Kennedy is still there, and Kennedy has ruled against Texas in the past. Many times. Gorsuch’s elevation does not change the balance of the court.
I went through my “Hooray, that means preclearance” to “Oh fuck” mood swing in the course of reading the article. The Roberts Court eviscerated the VRA and Gorsuch sure as hell isn’t going to vote contrary to Scalia.
@antisachetdethe Gorsuch does change the balance of the Court, from a possible 4-4 that would maintain the 5th Circuit decision back to a 5-4 that will continue the Roberts destruction of the VRA. The only hope I see is that Roberts understands the damage he has caused in retrospect and changes his position to favor voting rights.
A federal court in Texas Monday found that the state’s voter ID law was passed in 2011 with the intent to discriminate against minority voters.
Glad to know the court is on it.
“Federal Court Finds Discriminatory Intent In Texas Voter ID Case.”
Quelle surprise.
This is a factual finding that is pretty damning. If I’m remembering correctly, the standard would be that the Appellate court and/or SCOTUS would have to find that the factual finding of discriminatory intent is completely erroneous and unsupportable in order to overturn it. Normally the appellate courts are somewhat hands-tied and hands-off when it comes to the facts found in or by the lower courts. Gorsuch can do what he wants…the GOP sold their souls to steal a seat just to maintain the previous balance. Kennedy remains the swing vote and, at least on issues of equality and civil rights, he has been an ally of our side for the most part.
What will be interesting is to see if suddenly Sessions wants to get back involved. If he does…well…I don’t have to draw you a diagram.
Here’s a cheery thought: even if the Supreme Court were to rule against Texas and it were put back on the pre-clearance list, how likely is it that Sessions’ DoJ would deny Texas’ voting rights law, once all is said and done?
If Texas did have to be pre-cleared and wrote a “new” law that was essentially the same as the old law, but the DoJ “cleared” it, could the courts overrule the DoJ’s decision?
In some ways this could be worse, given the fact that a segregationist is running the justice department. If the DoJ civil rights division preclears the next atrocity, that acts as a legal presumption that it’s OK. And then if the gerrymandering ever gets undone and Texas gets a non-wingnut legislature, any improvements will have to be cleared as well.
Classic “Trumpy Old Party” doctrine. If you can’t get enough stupid people in one place to elect your candidate, do what comes naturally to a party made of political hacks who haven’t had a new Idea or an original thought since Eisenhower. Rig the vote. It worked in Florida for “The Village Idiot.”
Now, with this case making news will more folks in Texas wise up and vote for the “democrats?” Only time will tell.
Same goes for a mess of people in Alabama.
How many hacks, used car salesmen and scmucks do people have to run thru before they get sick and tired enough to vote their own best interests?
More Texans vote Democratic every election cycle.
It’s just whether or not we can overcome the vast amounts of Bad Jesus + guns that keeps the rural people pacified and voting Republican.
We are an Hispanic plurality state and we do still have people streaming in here from other states and other countries, and that has changed the demographics too.
I never stop believing that we can turn this state.
The decision is certainly correct and makes one feel good for a few moments. That is, until you realize that (regardless of its fate in the Fifth Circuit) it will almost certainly never survive in the Gorsuch Supreme Court. The votes of the four out and out political operatives of the Republican Party are beyond doubt; the possibility that Kennedy will not join them is very, very low. But like R2D2, I have been known to be wrong. From time to time.
Relax, GOP. Gorsuch will fix this little problem now that he’s been given Garland’s stolen seat.
Except when it counted on the VRA.
So if Texas turns purple will old Ricky P. get the blame? He did try and steal all those businesses from other places. 
Yes, assuming the SC upholds the 5th Circuit, then if they tried that and Sessions’ DOJ greenlighted it, the courts would shut it down again.
I’ll be very interested to see how Roberts and the other conservatives rule on this. Preclearance was removed in Shelby b/c of the (disingenuous) argument that the ex-Confederate states had “reformed” making the criteria outdated. Roberts, if he has any shame, has to realize with the actions of Texas, North Carolina, and other states (including those outside the old Confederacy) that his logic has been laughed in the face by the States’ very actions. I’m not sure he would take that very well.
So I could see him and possibly Kennedy and even Thomas voting to uphold the 5th Circuit, assuming they agree with this new ruling - and they already found parts of the law discriminatory. Not sure what Alito and Gorsuch would do.
What Dems should campaign on is modernizing the VRA to include mandatory DOJ review of any state changes that materially affect the time, place, and access to federal elections.
I spent many happy days in Texas. The fact is that very few love Texas more than I do. The only problem is that as much as I love the State, I simply cannot stand the State’s Government.
This court case proves there has been, is now, and will continue to be a naked and offensive effort to prevent certain select groups of Texans from casting votes. All America should be ale to hear All Texans howling mad about this from Seattle to Portland, Maine.
Only question is will it get people mad enough to vote for change, or will the layer of red slime still running Texas be able to get away with shafting Texans all over again?