Texas’ push for a tough new voter ID law puts it at the center of a
high-stakes battle over a civil rights landmark, just as the Supreme
Court grows more receptive to ending decades of automatic federal
oversight of local election rules.The last time the court looked at the Voting Rights Act — three years ago, in a case involving an Austin utility district — only one justice, conservative Clarence Thomas,
was ready to toss it out as unconstitutional. But all nine agreed that
“serious constitutional questions” hang over the landmark 1965 law,
which singles out nine states and parts of seven others for special
scrutiny based on their history of discriminating against minorities.

“Even the more liberal justices agreed that there were serious questions,” said Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University School
of Law who has written extensively about the election law. “Given the
marker they laid down in that earlier case, it’s hard to imagine the
court not returning to the issue.”

full story here.