Hispanic group, NAACP join Texas Voter ID lawsuit
By AP Wire Service on Sep 18, 2013, at 2:28 AM Updated on 9/18/13 at 5:14 AM
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Mexican American Legislative Caucus and the Texas NAACP filed a lawsuit Tuesday to overturn the state's Voter ID law, joining the Justice Department in fighting the law.
The two groups filed their petition with a federal court in Corpus Christi, the same court where other civil rights groups and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are fighting the requirement that voters must show a government-issued photo ID card to cast a ballot.
All of the law's opponents are arguing the Republican-controlled Legislature created an illegal barrier to voting for poor minorities and people who live in rural areas. Minorities make up the majority of voters who do not have one of the six forms of ID required. Only the Election Identification Certificate is available for free from the Department of Public Safety.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has defended the law as necessary to ensure fair elections. All three lawsuits are expected to be consolidated into one later this year in federal court. So far the plaintiffs have not asked the judge to stop implementation of the law in time for November's constitutional referendums.
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
