Supreme Court denies request to block Texas voter ID law

By Curtis Skinner

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday denied a request to block a Texas law requiring residents to show certain forms of identification before they vote, a measure that supporters say prevents voter fraud but opponents decry as discriminatory.

The move, which means the requirement will be in place for the November elections, comes after a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday granted a request by the state to stay a lower court decision that struck down the law.

The law, which supporters say is an important tool in staunching what they see as a growing threat of election fraud, requires voters to present photo identification such as a driver's license, passport or military ID card.

Saturday's ruling is a blow to the strategy of President Barack Obama's administration of challenging such laws, which it says discriminate by race.

Opponents of the ID law argue it is designed to reduce the turnout of certain groups of voters, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, who are less likely to have such identification.

The decision, published early on Saturday morning, was unsigned and did not provide a supporting legal argument.

"We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed that Texas' voter ID law should remain in effect for the upcoming election," the Texas Attorney General's office said in a statement.

"The state will continue to defend the voter ID law and remains confident that the district court's misguided ruling will be overturned on the merits."

Justice Ginsburg, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan from the court's liberal wing, penned a six-page dissent.

"The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters," Ginsburg wrote.

The Obama administration wants to counter a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2013 that overturned parts of the Voting Rights Act. That ruling freed several states, mostly in the South, from strict federal oversight.

Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos overturned the Texas law, arguing it discriminated against Hispanics and African-Americans and impinged on their right to vote. Ramos said the law would effectively disenfranchise some 600,000 voters, a figure the state disputes.

On Tuesday, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request filed by the state asking for that ruling to be put on hold pending appeal.

The trial stemmed from a battle over stringent voter ID measures signed into law by Governor Perry in 2011. It is one of a series enacted in mostly Republican-governed states requiring voters to show certain forms of identification before being allowed to vote.

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"This is an affront to our democracy," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which testified at the trial.

"Today's decision means hundreds of thousands of eligible voters in Texas will be unable to participate in November's election because Texas has erected an obstacle course designed to discourage voting."

At the trial, a number of Texans said they were unable to obtain the limited forms of identification needed to satisfy the law, the fund said in a statement.

"This battle isn't yet over," said Natasha Korgaonkar, an attorney with the NAACP LDF.