Washington (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider an appeal by Texas to revive strict voter-identification requirements that a lower court had ruled were discriminatory.
Enacted by the state’s Republican authorities in 2011 and considered one of the strictest such laws in the United States, it required voters to show one of seven types of official ID.
It allowed concealed handgun licenses and military ID cards, but not certain forms of federal identification and student ID cards.
Critics say the law was aimed at discouraging African-American and Hispanic people from voting. They tend to vote for Democrats.
A federal appeals court ruled in July that the Texas statute violated federal law, which bars racial discrimination in elections. Texas then sought to bring the case before the Supreme Court.
But the country’s top court declined to add the case to its calendar, letting stand the 2016 decision.
However, the conservative Chief Justice John Roberts issued a note explaining why the court refused to hear the case, saying that litigation is continuing in lower courts and that the Supreme Court could still consider an appeal in the future.
Other developments in the case are ongoing, including a federal court’s pending decision about whether the Texas authorities aimed to discriminate by passing the law instead of doing so inadvertently.
The Justice Department under former president Barack Obama originally challenged the 2011 law, together with civil rights groups and individual voters.
However, President Donald Trump’s new administration may choose to back the banned measure.
Hours after his inauguration on Friday, the Justice Department requested the delay of a hearing on the ongoing part of the case. It was originally set for Tuesday.
The United States has seen a number of minority voting restrictions despite the outlawing of racial discrimination under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The conservative-led Supreme Court struck down parts of the landmark civil rights law in 2013.
The move prompted legislation in a number conservative states that critics say has been designed to marginalize African-American and Latino voters on the pretext of fighting electoral fraud, despite there being virtually no evidence of such violations.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.