U.S. Supreme Court delayed the hearing of Texas appeal to restore its strict voter identification law, The court rescheduled the hearing to next month because the case is still in proceedings at the Federal district court.
The Supreme Court postpone the hearing due to the case is stil continuing in Texas federal district court as reported by Reuters. In the brief statement, ChiefJustice John Robert said that the Supreme Court will take the case at a later date. The hearing has been rescheduled to February.
Previously in July last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law which required voter to show one of seven forms of photo identification violated the Voting Rights Act. Those government-issued identifications include driver's license, U.S. passport, concealed handgun license, and military ID card. However, state university ID cards or government ID issued to obtain welfare benefits are not included as valid ID.
The 15 members of the judge at the Court of Appeals ruled by 9-6 vote against the states law. The court ruling was taken based on the testimony that Hispanics and Blacks were twice and three times more likely to have an acceptable ID under law than the whites. The disrriminatory treatment also affected the lower-income Texas resident, which were reported to have lack of necessary document to get a voting ID.
Texas is one of the state that has the most strict voting law which required voters to provide ID with photo to identify themselves as voters. The strict voting laws have triggered partisan battles around the countries as reported by Bloomberg. The Republicans backed the law with an argument that the law defend the voting against fraud, while Democrats said the measures as unnecessary and accused it to suppess racial minorities to use their voting rights.
Watch the report from Fox News, of the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defends the voter ID law below:
