Justice Dept. Sues Texas Over Voter Photo ID

Today the US Justice Department announced it will sue the state of Texas over its Voter Photo ID law. The heavily restrictive law, which would prevent hundreds of thousands of Texans from voting, had already been stricken down by the federal courts as discriminatory one year ago, but this year the US Supreme Court threw out the key requirement of the Voting Rights Act for preclearance of election law changes, so Texas announced that it would now enforce that law. Congressman Marc Veasey and others sued, and this week were joined in their suit by the County of Dallas. Now the feds will also be suing, not just to overturn this repressive Voter Photo ID law, but also to require Texas to be placed under a preclearance requirement again, based on its recent discriminatory laws and actions. Read more at ThinkProgress and TexasRedistricting. The case will probably not be decided before next year's March Primary, but may be done in time for November 2014. Thank you, DOJ, for weighing in for justice for all Texas voters.