WASHINGTON: A US federal court on Thursday barred Texas from enforcing a law requiring voters to produce photo ID when casting ballots, agreeing with opponents of the measure who said it unfairly targeted minorities.
With November elections just weeks away, US Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos said in a written opinion the law created an "unconstitutional burden on the right to vote."
It also "has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose," Ramos ruled, describing it as an "unconstitutional poll tax."
Ramos questioned Texas's claims that voter ID was necessary to prevent election fraud.
"This court finds that instances of in-person voter impersonation fraud in Texas are negligible," Ramos ruled.
The Texas Attorney General's office said it would immediately appeal the court ruling.
"The US Supreme Court has already ruled that voter ID laws are constitutional so we are confident the Texas law will be upheld on appeal," a statement said.
President Barack Obama's administration had spoken out against the Texas law. Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder welcomed Ramos's ruling in a statement late Thursday.
"We are extremely heartened by the court's decision, which affirms our position that the Texas voter identification law unfairly and unnecessarily restricts access to the franchise," Holder said.
"Even after the Voting Rights Act was seriously eroded last year, we vowed to continue enforcing the remaining portions of that statute as aggressively as possible. This ruling is an important vindication of those efforts.
Rights groups which had opposed the law also applauded the court ruling.
"Texas failed to identify a single instance of in-person voter fraud - the purported justification for Texas's photo ID law," said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
"The Court today effectively ruled that racial discrimination simply cannot spread to the ballot box."
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