Or not.
And just like that,
they're off:
With the Supreme Court suspending the mechanism that forced Texas to get a federal OK before it can implement any election law change, state Attorney General Greg Abbott asserts that nothing now can stop the state from activating its controversial voter ID law.
“With today’s decision, the State’s voter ID law will take effect immediately,” Abbott announced. “Redistricting maps passed by the Legislature may also take effect without approval from the federal government.” […]
[W]ith preclearance suspended, Abbott tweeted after this morning’s 5-4 ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts, US Attorney General “Eric Holder can no longer deny VoterID in Texas” and “Texas VoterID law should go into effect immediately.”
The benefit of the Supreme Court decision to those that seek voter suppression is obvious; you can suppress votes all you want, with any possible redress coming long after the fact. Want to reduce the number of polling places in minority districts? Go for it. Want to pass a law requiring identification that poor people don't tend to have and that will be a significant burden to go get? All clear. Want to gerrymander all the pesky voting power out of certain communities? Sure thing. Oh, you might get in trouble afterwards, tsk tsk, but the Supreme Court isn't going to go around invalidating the results of already held elections just because they were proved
a little bit illegal.
Voter suppression efforts have been on the rise, this last decade. If you're not a member of the Supreme Court, you may have heard of it. The eagerness with which Abbott and others are certain that now they'll be able to get away with things that the federal government wouldn't let them get away with before puts a rather large dent in the Court's theory that we can stop being quite so diligent against the efforts now.
Please sign the petition to join Daily Kos, Color of Change, and a growing movement to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing and protecting the freedom to vote for all.