December 4, 2017 | Austin American Statesman
By Chuck Lindell
Lawyers for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will argue that the law known as Senate Bill 14 was not discriminatory and if it did adversely affect minority voters, that result was not intentional.
More to the point, state lawyers will contend that changes the Legislature adopted earlier this year corrected any alleged problems with the 2011 voter ID law, requiring that the legal challenge be dismissed and the new law be enforced without court interference.
Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice made the same argument to the court—-continuing a change of heart at the agency, which, under Republican President Donald Trump, reversed its opposition to the Texas law under Democrat Barack Obama.
“SB 14 was intended to be one piece of a considered response to a decade-long and nationwide push to improve election integrity and increase public confidence in elections,” Paxton’s lawyers told the appeals court in pre-argument briefs. “It was not the product of invidious intent.”
