AUSTIN – The United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency injunction order in the Texas Democratic Party v. Texas lawsuit. The Fifth Circuit panel found that the district judge “took matters into his own hands” in a decision that will be remembered more for “audacity than legal reasoning.” The panel rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments that limits under Texas law to voting by mail are discriminatory.
“The most fundamental feature of a representative democracy is the citizen’s right to vote,” said Francisco “Quico” Canseco, director of the Election Integrity Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “It is key to the basic structure of our government which guarantees the rule of law, popular sovereignty, and individual freedom. It could not be better said than the Fifth Circuit Justice Ho’s statement that the right to vote means nothing if your vote doesn’t count.”
The opinion reads:
“The right to vote is fundamental to our constitutional democracy. But it means nothing if your vote doesn’t count. And it won’t count if it’s cancelled by a fraudulent vote—as the Supreme Court has made clear in case after case. ‘Every voter’s vote is entitled to be counted’—and that means every vote must be ‘protected from the diluting effect of illegal ballots.’”
To read the Fifth Circuit Courts opinion in full, please visit: