Lawsuit Challenging Texas’ S.B. 1 Moves Forward
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, July 12, a judge in Texas declined a request to dismiss part of a consolidated lawsuit challenging multiple provisions of Texas’ suppressive voting law, Senate Bill 1. The Republican defendants had asked the court to dismiss claims raised by one set of plaintiffs (LULAC Texas, Voto Latino, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans and Texas AFT), arguing that 1) the defendants are protected from being sued, 2) the plaintiffs do not have standing to sue and 3) the plaintiffs failed to make claims on which the court could grant relief.
The district court mostly disagreed with the defendants’ arguments. While the court dismissed the plaintiffs’ challenges to S.B. 1’s provisions related to voter assistance and election law crimes, all of the LULAC plaintiffs’ remaining claims will move forward. Claims raised by the other sets of plaintiffs are also actively being litigated (an attempt to dismiss the U.S. Department of Justice’s claims was recently rejected) and a trial is currently slated for next summer.