Trump administration drops voter ID claim against Texas

Trump won't object to voter ID law The Trump administration announced Wednesday it won't object to the strict voter ID law Texas wants to impose. A court has already ruled that the law violates the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case. >>>Scroll through the gallery to see the long, tangled history Texas has with the U.S. Supreme Court less Trump won't object to voter ID law The Trump administration announced Wednesday it won't object to the strict voter ID law Texas wants to impose. A court has already ruled that the law violates the Voting Rights ... more Photo: Eric Gay, STF Photo: Eric Gay, STF Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Trump administration drops voter ID claim against Texas 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Justice Department under President Donald Trump is abandoning its six-year-old claim that Texas' voter ID law was enacted with intent to discriminate against minorities, signaling a reversal from the government's posture under former President Barack Obama.

The about face comes on the eve of Tuesday's scheduled hearing before U.S. District Court judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi. It also comes a week after the Justice Department and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked for a delay in the case because the state Legislature is considering changes to the law, which the federal courts have already found to be discriminatory.

A Justice Department spokesman said a motion to drop the claim of discriminatory intent would be filed later Monday. The state has denied all allegations of a discriminatory purpose.

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The decision sent shock waves through legal rights groups that had partnered with the government in challenging the 2011 voter ID law. Some had warned that the Justice Department under incoming U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was opposed by many civil rights groups, would retreat from the Obama administration's aggressive push against state photo ID requirements, which critics say are designed to make it more difficult for minorities to vote.

"We're absolutely outraged," said Danielle Lang, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, one of several groups involved in the multi-year legal battle over the Texas voter ID law, one of several passed by Republican-controlled states around the nation. "There haven't been any changes in the facts... Nothing has changed except for Jeff Sessions is running the Department of Justice."

As recently as November, Obama administration lawyers had filed briefs in the case seeking a finding of "discriminatory intent" by the Texas Legislature. Lang said a consortium of civil and legal rights groups will continue to press the case seeking legal remedies for what they allege was intentional discrimination in passage of the 2011 law.

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Senate Republicans in Texas have recently introduced revised voter ID measures to address problems identified in previous federal court rulings as barriers to minority voting. One, filed by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would allow Texans a way to vote if they cannot "reasonably" obtain one of seven forms of ID currently required at the polls. It would also provide stiff penalties for illegal voting.

That measure has been endorsed by Paxton, who said it would protect "the integrity of the voting process" while complying with last year's ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that the 2011 law discriminated against Hispanics and members of other minority groups who are less likely to possess the types of required identification. The 5th Circuit decision was left standing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

>>>Scroll through the above gallery to see the long, tangled history of Texas and the U.S. Supreme Court