Federal government plans to sue Texas over voter ID law, intervene in redistricting case
Attorney
General Eric Holder, shown at an American Bar Association in San
Francisco, has filed suit against Texas twice this summer. (Jason
Henry/The New York Times)
UPDATE at 2:55 p.m.: The governor and the state attorney general have weighed in. Attorney General Greg Abbott, who’s office will be tasked with defending the state’s position in the lawsuits, said his Washington counterpart was ignoring voter fraud for political purposes.
“Eric Holder’s outrageous claim that voter ID is a racist plot to disenfranchise minority voters is gutter politics and is offensive to the overwhelming majority of Texans of all races who support this ballot integrity measure,” Abbott, a Republican running for governor said in a written statement.
He also said that by getting involved in the redistricting case, Holder is “trying to resurrect a law that was never implemented and no longer exists — and then sue it.”
Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, denounced “this administration’s blatant disregard for the 10thAmendment.” He pledged that the state would vigorously defend its laws.
UPDATE at 12:34 p.m.: Sen. John Cornyn has denounced the Justice Department’s lawsuit, calling it an attack on “the sovereign affairs of Texas and a lame-duck administration trying to turn our state blue.”
“As Texans we reject the notion that the federal government knows what’s best for us,” Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a written statement. “We deserve the freedom to make our own laws and we deserve not to be insulted by a Justice Department committed to scoring cheap political points.”
ORIGINAL ITEM: The Department of Justice announced today that it plans to sue Texas over its voter ID law and will intervene in the ongoing case over the state’s redistricting laws.
“Today’s action marks another step forward in the Justice Department’s continuing effort to protect the voting rights of all eligible Americans,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a written release. “The Department will take action against jurisdictions that attempt to hinder access to the ballot box, no matter where it occurs.”
It’s the second time this summer that the federal government has singled out Texas in a lawsuit seeking to protect voter rights.
The suits follow a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that found that requiring some states, including Texas, to get federal clearance before making changes to existing voting rules was unconstitutional because it relies on outdated data.
The court left it up to Congress to decide which states should be subject to pre-emptive scrutiny.
After that ruling, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the voter ID law would immediately go into effect. The feds countered the following month with a suit that sought to force the state to continue clearing any changes to voting laws (on the grounds that Texas continues to discriminate against voters).
This month, Dallas County commissioners narrowly agreed to join a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Perry over his intentions to implement the law requiring voters to show ID at the polls.
Read today’s full release from the Department of Justice after the jump.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Justice Department to File New Lawsuit Against State of Texas Over Voter I.D. Law
The Department of Justice announced today that it will file a new lawsuit against the State of Texas, the Texas Secretary of State, and the Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety over the State’s strict voter photo identification law (SB 14). The United States’ complaint seeks a declaration that SB 14 violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the voting guarantees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
Separately, the Department is filing a motion to intervene as a party and a complaint in intervention against the State of Texas and the Texas Secretary of State in the ongoing case of Perez v. Perry (W.D. Tex.), which concerns the state’s redistricting laws. The United States had already filed a statement of interest in this case last month. Today’s action represents a new step by the Department in this case that will allow the United States to formally present evidence about the purpose and effect of the Texas redistricting plans.
“Today’s action marks another step forward in the Justice Department’s continuing effort to protect the voting rights of all eligible Americans,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “We will not allow the Supreme Court’s recent decision to be interpreted as open season for states to pursue measures that suppress voting rights. The Department will take action against jurisdictions that attempt to hinder access to the ballot box, no matter where it occurs. We will keep fighting aggressively to prevent voter disenfranchisement. We are determined to use all available authorities, including remaining sections of the Voting Rights Act, to guard against discrimination and, where appropriate, to ask federal courts to require preclearance of new voting changes. This represents the Department’s latest action to protect voting rights, but it will not be our last.”
In the voter ID lawsuit, the United States’ complaint contends that SB 14 was adopted with the purpose, and will have the result, of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group. The complaint asks the court to prohibit Texas from enforcing the requirements of its law, and also requests that the court order bail-in relief under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act. If granted, this would subject Texas to a new preclearance requirement.
In the Department’s other filing announced today, the United States seeks a declaration that Texas’s 2011 redistricting plans for the U.S. Congress and the Texas State House of Representatives were adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group in violation of Section 2, as well as the voting guarantees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The complaint also requests that the court order bail-in pursuant to Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act, to remedy persistent, intentional discrimination in voting within the State of Texas.
“The Department of Justice will use all the tools it has available to ensure that each citizen can cast a ballot free from impermissible discrimination,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The right to the franchise is one of the most fundamental promises of American democracy.”
If the federal courts in either the redistricting or voter identification cases find that the State of Texas should be covered by Section 3(c), then the State would be required to submit voting changes to the U.S. Attorney General or to the federal court for review prior to implementation to ensure that the changes do not have a discriminatory effect or a discriminatory purpose. The Department has previously participated as amicus in the Perez case, and last month advised the federal court in Texas that the Department believed the imposition of a new preclearance requirement on Texas under Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act was appropriate. Today’s filing asks the Court to allow the Department to participate as a party in further proceedings on the question of whether Texas should be made subject to Section 3(c).
A federal court in the District of Columbia has previously held that Texas had failed to meet its burden of proving that its 2011 redistricting plans and its 2011 voter identification law were not discriminatory under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. These decisions were vacated after the Supreme Court’s June decision in Shelby County v. Holder. The Supreme Court’s decision left unaffected the non-discrimination requirements of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the bail-in provisions of Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act, and today’s filings seek to enforce those important protections.
The filings in the Texas redistricting and Texas voter identification matters will be available on the Civil Rights Division’s website later today. More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/. Complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be reported to the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.
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