2 Sides Cite Discrimination as Battle on Texas Voting Law Heads to Court

*This is very important. What happens in a Corpus Christi, Texas, federal court could put the teeth back into the Voting Rights Act. It’ll be a slow climb, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. VL

By Manny Fernandez, The New York  Times

HOUSTON – Minority groups and Democrats in Texas have loudly opposed a state law requiring voters to show government-issued  photo identification before casting their ballot. But one of the law’s biggest critics can be found not in Texas, but in Washington – Eric H. Holder Jr., the United States Attorney General.

On Tuesday, in a federal courtroom in Corpus Christi, Tex.,  Justice Department lawyers will ry to persuade a judge to strike down the voter ID law, the latest skirmish in a thre-year legal battle over whether the law passed by the Republican-led Legislature in 2011 discriminates against blacks and Hispanics. If Texas loses the trial – which opened Tuesday and will last about two weeks – it could again be required to seek federal approval  before making changes to its voting procedures, a level of oversight is was freed from by the United States Supreme Court.

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