United States v. Texas / Veasey v. Abbott is LDF’s lawsuit challenging SB 14, Texas’s restrictive photo ID law, and any legislation that bears the discriminatory taint of that law. SB 14 was previously blocked through the Voting Rights Act Section 5 litigation in 2012. Following the Shelby County decision in 2013, Texas immediately (and successfully) petitioned to vacate the Section 5 decision. Consequently, DOJ and LDF, in addition to other private plaintiffs, challenged SB 14 again under Section 2 of the VRA and the Constitution. Since LDF’s client and other plaintiffs began challenging SB 14 in court in 2012, five federal courts have found the law to be discriminatory against Black and Latino Texans. No court has ever sided with the State of Texas in defense of its discriminatory voter law.
The Texas Legislature crafted a strict voter ID law, SB 14, in 2011 that required voters to present a government-authorized photo ID, such as a concealed handgun license, which is disproportionately possessed by white voters, to vote in person in Texas. The legislature rejected amendments to that law that would have allowed voters to use state and federal employee IDs or student IDs, disproportionately possessed by voters of color in Texas. SB 14 imposes significant burdens on young African-American student voters in Texas, many of whom have previously relied on student IDs to vote in past elections. Texas’s restrictive voter ID law would have a disproportionate effect on voters of color throughout the state. Nationally, only 8% of white voting age citizens, while 25% of African-American voting age citizens, lack a government-issued photo ID. Under the law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not.
In May 2016, LDF’s now President and Director-Counsel, Janai Nelson argued the case before the 15 judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Nelson argued that Texas’ voter ID law intentionally discriminates against minority voters. In two minutes she showed why: 1) SB 14’s proponents selected photo IDs that Blacks and Latinos were least likely to possess and purposefully rejected several secure but less discriminatory forms of ID, 2) a complex cocktail of procedural departures enabled SB 14’s passage and 3) During the 82nd session, Texas legislators not only made repeated references to illegal aliens, linked immigration to leprosy, and proffered unfounded allegations of non-citizen voting and voter fraud, they engaged in intentional racial discrimination in redistricting. Now we wait for the court’s decision.
On April 10, 2017, federal district court found that Texas adopted SB 14 with the purpose to discriminate, and rejected Texas’ unsupported claim that its strict photo ID law is necessary to prevent widespread voter fraud.
In June 2017, after many years, and wasting approximately $5 million taxpayer dollars (and counting) to defend its racially discriminatory voter ID scheme, Texas enacted SB 5 – an amendment to SB 14 that maintains SB 14’s core discriminatory architecture. In an unsuccessful attempt to remedy SB 14’s discrimination, SB 5 creates two classes of voters: those who can present one of SB 14’s limited forms of photo ID or those who are forced to essentially stand in a separate line and engage in a separate voting process that subjects them to a potential criminal prosecution.
On November 7, 2017, LDF and its co-counsel filed an appellate brief before a three-judge court of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to uphold the federal trial court’s April 2017 finding that SB 14 is intentionally discriminatory. Specifically, the brief urges the appellate court to affirm that: (1) SB 14 is purposefully discriminatory against Black and Latino Texans; (2) SB 5 – which retains the core discriminatory features of SB 14 – does not eliminate the intentional racial discrimination inherent in SB 14; and (3) Texas should be prohibited from using both SB 14 and SB 5.
On December 5, 2017, LDF and co-counsel appeared in a federal appeals court to protect successful challenges to Texas’ voter ID law (SB 14), the strictest voter ID law in the country, and its descendant, SB 5.
