The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has once again upheld the legality of an election integrity law passed by Texas lawmakers in 2021, this time reversing a lower court ruling that struck down nine portions of the law under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“That law imposed new security measures on a host of voting practices—including, most importantly, mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting. As so often happens in modern America, a federal district judge then countermanded the Legislature with sweeping facial injunctions. We have been staying, vacating, and reversing those injunctions ever since,” wrote Judge Andrew S. Oldham, in an opinion joined by Judges Patrick E. Higginbotham and Jerry E. Smith
“Today, we do it again. In this case, the district court held that nine provisions of S.B. 1 were inconsistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We disagree and reverse.”
The opinion pointed to numerous other instances where the Fifth Circuit has overturned rulings by United States District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in consolidated litigation that challenged Senate Bill 1, a bill passed into law in 2021 to improve ballot security.
“In short, we have been playing an exhausting game of Whac-A-Mole to correct the district court’s mishandling of this case,” the Court’s opinion noted.
Among the provisions of Senate Bill 1 challenged in the lawsuit were requirements that voters who vote by mail must supply a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number that matches the state’s records. The lawsuit also challenged provisions requiring people who assist voters to sign an oath swearing they did not coerce the voter, state their relationship to the voter, and disclose whether a campaign or political committee paid them to assist the voter.
On most of the claims, the Court found that the Plaintiffs – including several left-wing interest groups that the Court described as “serial litigants when it comes to challenging the provisions of S.B. 1” – lacked standing. The Court rejected a claim seeking to prevent local prosecutors from enforcing the compensation provisions on the merits.
Conservative leaders praised the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.
“BREAKING VICTORY: I just secured a major win upholding election integrity and preventing voter fraud. My office will continue to defend Texas’s critical laws safeguarding our elections,” tweeted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
State Senator Bryan Hughes, the author of Senate Bill 1, wrote, “I carried the Election Integrity bill (SB 1) that made Democratic legislators flee Texas to try to block the bill. When fleeing didn’t work, they resorted to lawsuits to block it. But today Texas won yet another case upholding the law. The ruling upheld common sense provisions like Voter ID for mail ballots, helping make sure our elections are secure. Another win for Texas voters.”
