Ross Ramsey

The Texas Legislature Has A Consistent Discrimination Problem

Texas lawmakers have now been popped by federal judges seven or eight times in recent years for intentionally discriminating against minority voters in with voter ID and redistricting legislation. Think they’ve got a problem?

Ross Ramsey
By Ross Ramsey
A sign tells voters of voter ID requirements before participating in the primary election at Sherrod Elementary school in Arlington, Texas, March 1, 2016. (AP/LM Otero)

If somebody you know got stopped seven or eight times for driving drunk, would you think they had a problem? Texas lawmakers have now been popped by federal judges seven or eight times in recent years for intentionally discriminating against minority voters in voter ID and redistricting legislation. Think they’ve got a problem? The federal

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Federal Panel Rules Texas Must Redraw Intentionally Discriminatory Congressional Districts

Some of the state’s 36 congressional districts violate either the U.S. Constitution or the federal Voting Rights Act, a panel of three federal judges ruled Friday.

Ross Ramsey
By Ross Ramsey
Illustration: (Anneke Paterson/Todd Wiseman/The Texas Tribune)

Some of Texas’ 36 congressional districts violate either the U.S. Constitution or the federal Voting Rights Act, a panel of federal judges ruled Friday. In a long-delayed ruling, the judges ruled 2-1 that the Texas Legislature must redraw the political maps it most recently used for the 2016 elections. Specifically, they pointed to

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Texas Bathroom Bill Is Politics Disguised As Policy

As policy, the proposed regulations for transgender Texan’s restroom choices have some gaping holes in it. The politics, however, are easy to understand.

Ross Ramsey
By Ross Ramsey
A sticker that reads, "Keep Locker Rooms Safe," is worn by a person supporting a bill that would eliminate Washington's new rule allowing transgender people use gender-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings consistent with their gender identity, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, outside a Washington Senate hearing room at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash.

(ANALYSIS) --- The proposed bathroom bill percolating in the Texas Legislature doesn’t do what its supporters say it is supposed to do. Here’s the caption — the legal description at the top of Senate Bill 6: “relating to regulations and policies for entering or using a bathroom or changing facility; authorizing a civil penalty; increasing

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Texas Voter ID Laws Being Reviewed By Judges Following Recent Repeals In Other States

The evidence is piling up: If the law allows Texas and other states to discriminate, they will discriminate.

Ross Ramsey
By Ross Ramsey
An election official checks a voter's photo identification at an early voting polling site in Austin, Texas.

Photo voter ID laws, which require voters to offer photographic proof that they are who they say they are, have been flopping in federal courts across the country. The Texas law took a blow from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and was sent back to the trial court to put something better in place in time for the November elections. The

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