WASHINGTON -- Texas will "immediately" implement a voter ID law that a panel of federal judges ruled last year would impose “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor," a top state official said Tuesday. The decision to go forward with a measure that those federal judges called “the most stringent in the country" comes after the Supreme Court ruled that a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional.
“With today’s decision, the State’s voter ID law will take effect immediately," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. "Redistricting maps passed by the Legislature may also take effect without approval from the federal government.”
In blocking those redistricting maps last year, a separate panel of federal judges ruled that the government "provided more evidence of discriminatory intent than we have space, or need, to address" in their opinion. Attorney General Eric Holder cited the Texas redistricting case in his statement criticizing the Supreme Court's ruling.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law the voter ID measure and redistricting maps in question. Abbott took to Twitter to celebrate the death of the Voting Rights Act provision:
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