Quote:

---

The lawsuit will challenge the law under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or language. Texas moved swiftly to implement its voter ID law after the Supreme Court in June struck down a requirement that states with a history of racial discrimination seek permission from the federal government to change their voting laws.

Texas was subject to that process, known as “preclearance.”

“Today’s action marks another step forward in the Justice Department’s continuing effort to protect the voting rights of all eligible Americans,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “We will not allow the Supreme Court’s recent decision to be interpreted as open season for states to pursue measures that suppress voting rights.”

In lieu of the preclearance requirement, Holder said last month that he would ask a court to force Texas to get prior approval to change its election laws.

Texas Republican officials have claimed the voter ID law is needed to prevent in-person voter fraud. But civil rights groups have pointed out that there are very few examples of that type of fraud, and said that the laws are used to prevent minorities from casting ballots.

The lawsuit will ask the court to block implementation of the law, alleging that it “was adopted with the purpose, and will have the result, of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”

The Justice Department also announced that it is joining an existing lawsuit against Texas’ 2011 redistricting plan, which argues that black and Hispanic voters are underrepresented under new congressional maps. http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/department-justice-sues-t
exas-voter-id-law/story?id=20037384

---