Texas Photo ID Law Still Discriminating American Voters

The law especially affects Hispanic and African American voters, and has been repeatedly recognized “unconstitutional” by US courts.

In 2011, Texas adopted a new bill, requiring voters to show one of the seven acceptable photo IDs at a polling station when voting in person.

“These Photo ID restrictions […] are very narrow and say that you can only give one of a very few types of government-issued photo IDs in order to be able to vote or you’re disenfranchised,” Brad Friedman from radio Sputnik's BradCast said while discussing the ongoing presidential pre-election campaign and voter discrimination.

The legislation has been placed on voters in certain US states where Republicans usually win the election. It is reported to affect more than 600,000 Democratic-leaning voters in these states and used to disenfranchise them.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals recently found the law “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional” as did the lower US District Court and the federal government before that.

The problem is, however, that the law still remains in place, because the corresponding injunction — that would make it invalid — is not in force.

In 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down the requirement for pre-clearance of such laws from the Voting Rights Act which meant that Texas could just say: “no we can go ahead and implement it,” Friedman stated.

That is why, now, despite the fact that the law clearly discriminates minorities, there would be no one to stop Texas authorities from enforcing the law and playing Republicans into hand.