July 20, 2016 6:05 PM

What is next in dealing with 5th circuit decision on voter ID

Does not void voter ID concept but Texas loomed perilously close to intentional discrimination

The Texas Voter ID law appears to be cast today into something akin to the Catholic Church’s version of purgatory – bound for neither heaven nor Hell, but somewhere in between in an act of absolution to satisfy the Voting Rights Act.

This afternoon, the Fifth Circuit of Appeals, in an en banc opinion, vacated much of the opinion of Texas’ 2011 Voter ID law. The opinion, more than 200 pages long, instructs the state to craft a remedy before the November general election. As election lawyer Rick Hasen notes in his blog this afternoon, that remedy is something less than what Texas has right now, while still preserving the state’s right to put some form of voter identification in place to avoid voter fraud.

By Kimberly Reeves