Plaintiffs Ask Supreme Court to Block Voter ID

Texas plaintiffs on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state's voter photo ID law in November's election.

"The facts of this case, including record evidence, show that significantly more voter confusion will result from granting the stay (and thus enforcing Texas’s Senate Bill 14) than would result from reinstating the injunction (and thus going forward under the prior law)," they wrote. "Therefore, a proper application of this Court’s precedents calls for vacating the stay."

A federal judge in Corpus Christi declared the law unconstitutional last week and ordered the state to conduct the election without requiring photo IDs from voters. On Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed that order, saying the law should be left in place to avoid confusion in an imminent election. 

In their brief to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs in the case — including the League of United Latin American Citizens — argue that it would be more disruptive to conduct the election with the ID law in place than to do without it, and would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Texas voters. They argue that the district court's finding that the law discriminates against minorities outweighs the argument that the election is too close for a change.

The attorney general's office hailed Tuesday's ruling from the 5th Circuit and has not yet filed an answer to the plaintiff's appeal to the nation's highest court.