An update on that other voter ID lawsuit.
Still the only voter ID anyone should need
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Larry Meyers claims that the state’s voter ID law violates the Texas Constitution, and the court ruled that the case will proceed after rejecting defendants’ arguments that the court lacked jurisdiction.
Meyers—who filed the lawsuit as a private citizen, not as a judge on the state’s top criminal court—and a Dallas-area election worker, Myrtis Evans, sued three defendants over the voter ID law, claiming that the law violated the Texas Constitution because it was a prior restraint on their right to political expression. Among other things, they alleged that the law violated their rights to due process and equal protection, said a third amended petition in Meyers v. Texas, filed in Dallas County’s 134th District Court.
The plaintiffs sued the state of Texas, Secretary of State Carlos Cascos and Dallas County elections administrator Toni Pippins-Poole. All of the defendants have denied all of the allegations.
The state and the secretary of state argued that the court did not have jurisdiction and should dismiss the lawsuit. They allege that Meyers and Evans did not have standing to bring their claims, plus they “sued the wrong defendants,” according to the plea to the jurisdiction. They also claimed they had sovereign immunity.
134th District Judge Dale Tillery denied the arguments late last month.
See here for the background. There is of course a federal lawsuit against the voter ID law, and the ruling by the Fifth Circuit that Texas’ law ruled that it violated the Voting Rights Act came out later in the same day that this story appeared. Judge Meyers says he’ll drop his lawsuit if the federal district court ruling is upheld by them and by SCOTUS. I haven’t seen any indication since the appellate ruling that his mind has been changed, so I presume he will continue to pursue this. I’m happy to see all avenues being taken against the voter ID law, and I’m glad the judge in this case agreed with that. One way or the other, we’re still a ways off from a resolution.