DOJ to 5th Circuit: Texas voter ID law needs to be fixed ASAP

AUSTIN — The Obama administration and several civil rights groups are urging a federal appeals court to fast track the process of temporarily fixing Texas' voter ID law in time for the upcoming Nov. 3 elections.

In court filings Thursday, the Justice Department and civil rights groups asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow a lower court to start getting to work immediately on an interim remedy to the law passed in 2011 by the state's Republican-led Legislature.

A three-judge panel at the 5th Circuit ruled in part earlier this month that Texas' strict voter ID measure violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The 5th Circuit bounced a portion of the case back to a federal court in Corpus Christi and instructed it to correct the law ahead of the upcoming election while the rest of the case works through the courts. The 5th Circuit noted the lower court should craft a remedy that would "avoid election eve uncertainties and emergencies."

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