Federal appeals court rules Texas voter ID law has a 'discriminatory effect'

The federal appeals court ruled the Texas voter ID law to have a &quot;discriminatory effect.&quot;

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published 20 July 2016

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals handed a significant victory to voting rights Wednesday when it ruled a controversial Texas voter ID law has a "discriminatory effect" that violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The law requires voters to show a government-issued form of ID before voting and places strict parameters on which types of identification are acceptable; the court found these restrictions to disproportionately affect minority voters.

However, because the court only found the law to have a discriminatory effect and not a discriminatory purpose, Texas can keep the law so long as it fixes the problem ahead of the upcoming November elections. The decision on whether the law has a discriminatory purpose has been passed back to the lower courts to make, and likely won't come until after the elections.