The Supreme Court on Monday took a pass on hearing challenges to a lower court ruling that struck down Texas's voter ID law, providing a temporary victory to voting rights advocates. Richard Wolf writes:
Chief Justice John Roberts warned that the case could come back to the high court after further skirmishes at the federal district court level are completed. The Trump administration received a 30-day delay in the lower court case Friday amid speculation it may switch sides and defend the law. (emphasis added)
A federal appeals court struck down the voter identification law as discriminatory in July, giving civil rights advocates a crucial victory in advance of the 2016 election. The 9-6 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was the third consecutive decision against the Texas law, which opponents claimed could have left up to 600,000 voters without proper ID.
The appeals court majority said the law was not intended to discriminate but had that effect on minority voters. It sent the case back to the district court to supervise changes that would allow the law to stand without discriminating.
So expect to see a lot more of the administration of popular vote loser Donald Trump eyeing "switching sides" on key civil rights legislation related to voting rights, the undocumented, and LGBTQ individuals, among other categories. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law has vowed to continue challenging the law regardless of what government lawyers do.
The Texas case and another challenge to North Carolina's array of voting restrictions remain the leading contenders among many voting rights cases to get to the Supreme Court as early as next fall, when the justices could define what types of voting changes are allowed and prohibited under the Voting Rights Act. The North Carolina also was struck down and has been appealed to the high court.