And now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring legal issues in the news. Today, Bloomberg Law hosts Greg Store discusses a ruling by a federal judge in Texas at the state's voter identification laws are intentionally discriminatory towards black and Hispanic voters. He speaks to Josh Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky School of Law.
This case has a long procedural history. I don't think we want to get get into all that, but tell us what is new about this this ruling from from Judge Ramas. What's new is that the judge here explicitly found that the state of Texas meant to discriminate against minority voters when passing the voter ide law. Now, the judge had found this previously, and it went up on appeal in the Fifth Circuit reversed and said you considered
some evidence that you shouldn't have considered. So this ruling is the judge not considering that extra evidence and still finding that the state had discriminated against minority voters. Josh. Some people have have described the Texas law as the strictest in the nation. Um, do you agree with that, and if so, what what is different about the way the requirements for Texas in Texas for voter i das
from other states that have voter ide laws. Yeah, it is one of the strictest, and and that goes to the requirements of what you can show and what your idea has to have. So in some states they allow you, if you don't have a photographic i D to sign an affidavit a testing under penalty of perjury that you are who you say you are. Other states allow you to use your student i D if you are have an idea from a public university. Texas doesn't than know any of that, at least under the law as it's
enacted and as it's being considered. The last year of court did require to soften the law to allow more things like an affidavit requirement. Um, but as the loft stands and what the judges reviewing, it's very strict. You need a government issued photo identification that's not inspired. It can't be your student i D. Of course, interestingly, your gun license in Texast does count as an idea, but
your publicly issued student i D doesn't. And so it's the types of forms that you need are very, very narrow, and that's what makes it the most strict in the nation. That is Josh Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky School of Law, speaking to Bloomberg Law host Craig Store. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm while street time here on Bloomberg Radio, and that's this
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