Civil and Human Rights Coalition Condemns Ruling on Texas Photo ID Law, Calls for Federal Voting Discrimination Protections

WASHINGTON — Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Supreme Court on Saturday granted Texas’ request to implement a photo ID law despite a lower court ruling that the law is intentionally discriminatory, unconstitutional, and could prevent more than 600,000 Texas citizens from voting:

“Today’s decision is a huge disappointment and an affront to the principle of fair elections that condones the use of a state voter ID law with the potential to disenfranchise more than 600,000 Texas citizens — a disproportionate share of them African American and Latino.

“This outcome is the direct result of the Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act last year. Two separate federal courts have found this law to be racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. The most recent decision followed an extensive trial in which the judge found that the law was enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose and functioned as an unconstitutional poll tax. Yet the Supreme Court today is allowing Texas to implement the law for the November election and beyond during the appellate process.

This is what the world looks like without a strong Voting Rights Act.  Congress’s first order of business when it comes back to Washington must be to restore the VRA.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.