Voter ID lawsuits live on despite likely Trump policy shift
AUSTIN, Texas — Federal lawsuits challenging voter ID requirements in Texas and North Carolina won’t just disappear, even if Justice Department lawyers who once argued against the laws effectively switch sides to advocate for them under President Donald Trump’s administration, civil rights lawyers say.
What Trump’s Justice Department will do isn’t yet known, but Trump’s comments on the campaign trail and since taking office suggest the agency will re-examine its strategy and may support the two states’ toughest-in-the-nation requirements that voters show picture identification at the polls. President Barack Obama’s Justice Department launched high-profile legal challenges against those laws, arguing that the requirements were unnecessary and unconstitutional.
“The time and resources the federal government has spent on this case have truly been substantial,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is representing plaintiffs in the Texas voter ID case. “But if the federal government reverses course, we are fully prepared to move forward.”
A court forced Texas to water down its law for the November election, but the case is continuing in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. North Carolina’s 2013 voter ID law was struck down in July, but the state has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s decision.