Federal appeals court rules Texas voter ID law has a 'discriminatory effect'

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals handed a significant victory to voting rights Wednesday when it ruled a controversial Texas voter ID law has a "discriminatory effect" that violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The law requires voters to show a government-issued form of ID before voting and places strict parameters on which types of identification are acceptable; the court found these restrictions to disproportionately affect minority voters. However, because the court only found the law to ...