Supreme Court throws out lower court ruling on Texas voter ID law

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has thrown out lower court rulings that blocked a Texas voter identification law and the state's political redistricting plans as discriminatory.

The court's action Thursday was a predictable result of its major ruling two days earlier that effectively ended the federal government's strict supervision of elections in Texas and other states with a history of discrimination in voting.

The justices ordered lower courts to reconsider in light of Tuesday's ruling.

In both the voter ID and redistricting cases, the court stopped the state from putting in place the laws under the advance approval requirement of the Voting Rights Act.

The court has said that part of the law cannot be used unless Congress develops a new formula for determining which states and localities should be covered.