--- title: Texas Voter ID Law Struck Down by Federal Judge description: A federal district Judge in Texas blocked the most recent version of the voter identification law in court on Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-24T00:53:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:08:12.395Z article:section: Politics og:title: Federal Judge Blocks Latest Version of Texas Voter ID Law og:description: The same judge had blocked a previous version of the law in 2014 og:url: https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40369b3713e68ceb/6988daefcf40a8eae7c49179/voter-id.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2478 og:image:height: 1394 og:image:alt: Voting In New Hampshire Primary Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Federal Judge Blocks Latest Version of Texas Voter ID Law twitter:description: The same judge had blocked a previous version of the law in 2014 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40369b3713e68ceb/6988daefcf40a8eae7c49179/voter-id.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Federal Judge Blocks Latest Version of Texas Voter ID Law > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Aug 24, 2017 12:53 AM UTC  A picture ID is shown in order to vote. Voters cast their ballots at Seabrook's only polling location, the Seabrook Community Center, on Feb. 9, 2016, during the New Hampshire presidential primary election. A picture ID is shown in order to vote. Voters cast their ballots at Seabrook's only polling location, the Seabrook Community Center, on Feb. 9, 2016, during the New Hampshire presidential primary election.Pat Greenhouse—The Boston Globe/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Aug 24, 2017 12:53 AM UTC A federal district Judge in Texas has dealt another blow to the state’s voting identification law, blocking the most recent version in court on Wednesday. Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who had blocked a previous version of the law in 2014, rejected the changes that Governor Greg Abbott had signed earlier in the summer that determined an affidavit and paperwork verifying identity and address were sufficient replacement materials for an identification, [according to the Associated Press.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/federal-judge-again-throws-out-texas-voter-id-law/2017/08/23/edcfb028-884d-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.90af1400bf15) Gonzales Ramos said these changes could be “chilling” to voters, acting as impediments instead of incentives to get them to the polls. She was particularly concerned the criminal penalties floated as punishment for lying on the affidavits, the AP reports, and that the rules would have a disproportionate effect on minorities. The Department of Justice under the Trump Administration had supported the changes put in place by Abbot — it had previously opposed the entire law under Barack Obama. “This feature remains discriminatory because \[the law\] perpetuates the selection of types of ID most likely to be possessed by Anglo voters and, disproportionately, not possessed by Hispanics and African-Americans,” Gonzalez Ramos wrote. Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee and Labor Secretary under President Obama, was quick to praise the decision. “These laws are nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to deny Latinos and African Americans their constitutional rights. Democrats believe that we should making it easier to vote, not harder. And we will continue to fight for the right of all Americans to access the ballot box,” he said in a statement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/"},"headline":"Federal Judge Blocks Latest Version of Texas Voter ID Law","datePublished":"2017-08-24T00:53:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:08:12.395Z","description":"The same judge had blocked a previous version of the law in 2014","url":"https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/","keywords":["Texas","Courts","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40369b3713e68ceb/6988daefcf40a8eae7c49179/voter-id.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40369b3713e68ceb/6988daefcf40a8eae7c49179/voter-id.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Voting In New Hampshire Primary Election","caption":"Voting In New Hampshire Primary Election","creditText":"Pat Greenhouse—The Boston Globe/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/texas/","name":"Texas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4913530/texas-voter-id-law-block-nelva-gonzales-ramos/","name":"Federal Judge Blocks Latest Version of Texas Voter ID Law"}}]}] ```