In a letter to the Texas state government, Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the state had failed to meet its requirement, under the Voting Rights Act, to show that the measure would not disproportionately disenfranchise registered minority voters.
In anticipation that the Obama administration might not clear the law, Texas officials had already asked a panel of judges to allow them to enforce the law. A hearing in that case is scheduled for this week, and the Justice Department filed a copy of its letter before the court.
The decision, which follows a similar move in December blocking a law in South Carolina, brought the Obama administration deeper into the politically and racially charged fight over a wave of new voting restrictions, enacted largely by Republicans in the name of combating voter fraud.
Still, this month, a state judge in Wisconsin issued a temporary injunction blocking that state from enforcing a similar new statute, saying its restrictions would disproportionately prevent elderly, indigent and minority voters from participating in an coming election.
Last year, more than a dozen states enacted new voting restrictions, including eight — Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — that passed variations of a rule requiring photo identification.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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