Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller will be in New Orleans on Tuesday to defend the Lone Star State's voter ID law before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals against claims that it is unconstitutional, according to Hans von Spakovsky writing in
The Daily Signal.
The law was passed in 2011 and has since faced legal challenges from advocacy organizations and the Justice Department. It has been in effect for state and federal elections held in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
In October, Federal District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, issued an injunction against the law on the grounds that it amounted to a poll tax, violated the Voting Rights Act, and created an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, according to Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Ramos' injunction and the Supreme Court refused to lift the stay, thus allowing the law to apply on Election Day. Now the case will be heard on its merits by the appeals court.
Ramos had issued her injunction "even though the Justice Department and the plaintiffs could not produce a single individual who had been or would be unable to vote because of the voter ID law," wrote Spakovsky.
In 2008, in the case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court found that a
similarly crafted Indiana voter ID law did impose a "substantial burden" on voters and was not unconstitutional, wrote Spakovsky.
The Texas voter photo ID is free. Anyone who needs to purchase a birth certificate in order to obtain the ID can do so for under $3, according to Spakovsky.
He said that
opponents have been unable to show that any legislator who supported the law did so with discriminatory purpose, despite being granted access to lawmakers' work and private email correspondence.
"With no evidence of racial discrimination or disparate impact" Ramos depended on an unreliable algorithm, presented by a Democratic political data firm, in determining that those who did not already have an ID would face discrimination in getting one, according to Spakovsky.
He argued that voter turnout in the past three elections was not affected by the ID requirement. Spakovsky urged the Fifth Circuit panel that will hear the case to reverse the district court decision.
The appeals panel is comprised of Chief Judge Carl Stewart, a Bill Clinton appointee, Judge Catharina Haynes, a George W. Bush appointee, and Judge Nannette Brown, who was appointed by Obama, according to Spakovsky.
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