Voting Rights Act of 1965

En Banc Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral argument in Texas Voter ID case

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Lawyers for the state of Texas today defended that state’s discriminatory voter ID law before an en banc panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Veasey v. Abbott. Link to Oral Argument.

The Texas Tribune reports, In High-Profile Case, Texas Defends Its Voter ID Law:

VotersStanding before all 15 members of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller argued that judges were wrong to conclude in two previous rulings that the Texas Legislature discriminated against minority and low-income voters in passing a 2011 law that stipulates which types of photo identification election officials can and cannot accept at the polls.

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Lawyers representing the U.S. Department of Justice, minority groups and other plaintiffs disagreed, asking the judges to affirm what a lower court — and a three-judge panel in this same courthouse — previously concluded: that Senate Bill 14 has a “discriminatory effect” on Hispanic, African-American and other would-be voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Only a handful of judges asked questions at length on Tuesday, making it difficult to know where the majority stands. But the 5th Circuit is considered among the nation’s most conservative, with 1o of its members having been appointed by Republican presidents.

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Arizona is among nine ‘red’ states being sued for voter disenfranchisement

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Of the 17 states with new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election this year, nine also have major ongoing lawsuits that could impact voting access before November. Here is the Brennan Center for Justice roundup:

Voting-RightsNorth Carolina’s law, passed shortly after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, reduced the early voting period, cut pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, eliminated same day registration, and implemented a voter ID requirement. At trial, the court heard testimony from dozens of witnesses burdened by the strict new requirements, which caused confusion and long lines in the state’s March primary. Lawyers for the plaintiffs made a motion to appeal the decision, which the appeals court quickly granted, and a hearing could come as early as July.

Battles continue in other states as well. In Texas, a hearing is scheduled for May 24 before the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concerning the state’s strict photo ID law. Last August, a three-judge panel upheld a prior ruling striking down the requirement, which found more than 600,000 registered voters do not have the kind of ID now needed. (The Brennan Center represents the Texas NAACP and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the case, along with other co-counsel).

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SCOTUS gives 5th Circuit Court of Appeals a deadline to decide Texas voter ID case

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The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to stop Texas from enforcing its strict photo ID requirement for voters in the state in an upcoming run-off election, but left open the possibility that it might change its mind later. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports, Texas voter ID law left in effect — for now:

SupremeCourtThe order in essence gave a federal appeals court until July 20 to decide a case about that law’s validity under the federal Voting Rights Act.  After that date, the Court might step in, it said.

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The new order does these things: first, it denied the request to block enforcement immediately; second, it noted that it was aware of the pressure of time before the November election; third, it told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that if it has not acted in any way on the pending en banc review of the controversy “on or before July 20,” any “aggrieved party” disappointed by that inaction could ask the Justices for temporary legal protection; and, fourth, it also said that any “aggrieved party” could ask the Court to step in before the July date if there were a change in circumstances that would bear upon the enforcement issue.

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North Carolina Judge upholds that states’ ‘most restrictive voting law in the nation’

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A North Carolina Judge has upheld that states’ “most restrictive voting law in the nation” as not being overly burdensome on black voters. Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog has an  Analysis: Federal District Court Upholds Restrictive NC Voting Law in 485-Page Opinion:

VotersFederal district court judge Thomas Schroeder has issued this 485-page opinion considering constitutional and Voting Rights Act challenges to North Carolina’s 2013 restrictive voting law . . .

This is a careful, erudite, yet controversial opinion which will almost certainly be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which could well reverse parts of it, and then potentially to the United States Supreme Court, where the Court could well deadlock 4-4 (leaving any 4th Circuit ruling in place). And all of these appeals will have to happen in short order for it to affect how the 2016 elections take place under the Purcell principle. 

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The Democratic Party sues Arizona for voter suppression

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A group of Maricopa County voters, the Democratic National Committee, the Arizona Democratic Party, the president of the Navajo Nation, the campaign of Ann Kirkpatrick, and the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will sue the state of Arizona over voter access to the polls after the state’s presidential primary last month. Democratic Party, Clinton and Sanders campaigns to sue Arizona over voting rights:

Screenshot from 2016-03-28 13:33:22The lawsuit, which will be filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix, focuses on Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county, where voters faced the longest lines on March 22 during the Democratic and Republican primaries after the county cut the number of polling places by 85 percent since 2008.

Arizona’s “alarmingly inadequate number of voting centers resulted in severe, inexcusable burdens on voters county-wide, as well as the ultimate disenfranchisement of untold numbers of voters who were unable or unwilling to wait in intolerably long lines,” the lawsuit says.

The lack of voting places was “particularly burdensome” on Maricopa County’s black, Hispanic and Native American communities, which had fewer polling locations than white communities and in some cases no places to vote at all, the lawsuit alleges.

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