In an effort to protect minority voting rights, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it will sue to prevent Texas from enacting a 2011 voter ID law.
The Texas law was originally blocked by a federal court in 2012. However, the law has become viable again with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in June, reports Reuters.
"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," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says in a statement, according to USA Today.
The voter ID law would require voters to present a state registered ID at the polls. While other states have enacted similar laws, Texas has not made the same effort to allow voters to obtain this documentation free of charge. The Justice Department will argue that these circumstances discriminate against minority voters.
Holder plans to use a different part of the Voting Rights Act to prove the illegality of Texas’s law. In order to make his case, Holder must prove “purposeful” discrimination, CNN explains. Voting rights lawyers speculate that Texas will be the first in a series of states in which the government uses this tactic to protect voting rights.