Sen. Cruz Rallies Support for Texas Voter ID Law
Leads Texas Republican congressional delegation in filing amicus brief
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the entire Texas Republican congressional delegation filed a critical amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Veasey v. Abbott. The brief supports Texas’ Senate Bill (SB) 14, which requires Texas voters to present government-issued photo ID before voting and provides for free election ID cards.
After SB 14 was passed into law in 2011, the Obama administration, along with private plaintiffs, launched an attack on this sensible legislation, claiming in court that SB 14 violates the Voting Rights Act, among other things. The case is now scheduled to be heard by the entire 5th Circuit. The Texas congressional delegation brief pushes back specifically against the administration’s baseless Voting Rights Act arguments.
“Proper evaluation of SB 14 under the Voting Rights Act must take into account the settled benefits of voter identification laws,” the brief states. “Texas’s SB 14 is an excellent example of a voter identification law that fosters each of these benefits through evenhanded, race-neutral, and non-burdensome means. Not only does Texas accept an array of state and federal documents to comply with SB 14, but the Texas Legislature mandated that state officials issue one means of complying—a Texas election identification certification (“EIC”)—to voters for free…
“Simply put, an application of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that would invalidate such a commonsense measure cannot be correct.”
Read the amicus brief in its entirety here.
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