Judge: Why Didn't Lawmakers Address Voter ID Concerns?

[TexasTowelie]

NEW ORLEANS – A federal appellate judge on Tuesday questioned why the Texas Legislature had not addressed concerns that its four-year-old voter ID law discriminated against minority voters.

U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Catharina Haynes stopped short of rebuking state lawmakers while listening to attorneys spar over what are widely considered the nation’s strictest rules on the identification that voters must present at the polls. But she sounded perplexed that lawmakers had not made the law more palatable to critics as it winded through the federal court system.

“They’re meeting right now. They had that opportunity. What are they doing?” Haynes asked from a perch on a three-judge panel of the appeals court.

"Why wouldn't the legislative system fix the {Texas} rules?" added Haynes, who was appointed to the court by then-President George W. Bush. "Why should we fix the {Texas} rules?"

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/28/fed-judge-legislature-why-not-tweak-voter-id-law/

[AuntPatsy]

1. Voter repression, it's working wonders

[Downwinder]

2. Why didn't they train their DPS clerks how to issue

the cards? They had to get a step by step tutorial over the phone with Austin when I got mine. I sort of felt I should get paid as a training subject. She had three others looking over her shoulder to see how to do it.

[Gothmog]

3. Here is a link to the actual oral arguments

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/14/14-41127_4-28-2015.mp3 The judge asking this question is an ex-Baker Botts partner who does not live in the real world. Among the top Texas firms, Baker Botts has a long standing reputation of not being practical and not understanding real world concepts

[Downwinder]

4. Here there is no public transportation to the DPS office

nor are there sidewalks.