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Suit Against Texas Aims for Voting Preclearance
A lawsuit filed by several civil rights groups may result in continued federal oversight of Texas voting law changes. This despite a United States Supreme Court ruling that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. That section mandated some states, including Texas, to get what's known as preclearance for any voting changes.
The suit was filed by the league of United Latin American citizens, the NAACP, the Texas legislative black caucus and State Senator Wendy Davis in a D.C. court.
When the Supreme Court struck the preclearance formula, it left intact the rest of the law – like Section 5 - which is designed to protect minorities from voting discrimination. During the Texas redistricting battle, the federal courts found the state was discriminatory when redrawing district lines
“In this case they found the worst thing of all that is intentional discrimination. That the legislature knew what they were doing and did it anyway,” said LULAC attorney Luis Vera.
It was that determination that could make Texas still susceptible to preclearance from the federal government under a different section of the voting rights act – which is called the bail-in provision.
That provision is used for states, cities, counties, or other jurisdictions that implement questionable voting practices even if they were not covered under the now unconstitutional preclearance formula. If judges approve, voting law changes in Texas could continue to be subject to department of justice approval.