Opinion ID: 4549957
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History and Timing of the Photo ID Law

Text: From 2000 to 2002, the Alabama House attempted to pass various voter identification bills. White legislators overwhelmingly favored these bills while Black legislators opposed them because of the potential impact on Black voters. At the same time, the Alabama Black Caucus pushed for a bill to re-enfranchise felon voters who were disproportionately Black. The competing measures resulted in a two-year standoff. Finally, on the last day of the 2003 Legislative Session, both a voter identification bill and a re-enfranchisement bill passed after both sides agreed not to filibuster. Governor Bob Riley signed the voter identification bill into law but vetoed the re-enfranchisement bill. After facing opposition from Black legislators to a tax referendum and a threatened NAACP boycott, Governor Riley relented and backed a modified re-enfranchisement bill. The modified bill was 4 Like the majority opinion, I use the term “Latino” because that is the term Plaintiffs/Appellants used in their briefing. Though Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably, I recognize that the terms do not necessarily mean the same thing. 81 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 82 of 97 passed over a Republican filibuster in the House and opposition in the Senate led by Senator Larry Dixon.5 The 2003 voter identification law required each voter to provide valid photo identification or a copy of a utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that showed the name and address of the voter. From 2003 to 2010, repeated attempts to restrict the 2003 law to only permit photo identification failed because of opposition from Black legislators who were concerned about the potential disparate impact of a photo identification requirement on Black voters. The 2010 elections produced a historic Republican landslide in Alabama with Republicans holding supermajorities in both the House and Senate. In 2011, one of the priorities of the newly-elected Alabama Legislature was to enact legislation requiring photo identification to vote. House Representative Kerry Rich sponsored HB 19 and Senators Scott Beason, Ben Brooks, Rusty Glover, Paul Sanford, Jabo Waggoner, and others co-sponsored an identical bill in the Senate. The House passed HB 19 by a largely party-line vote of 64-31. Senator Beason, the Senate’s Rules Committee Chairman, then added HB 19 to the “special order” calendar for June 9, 2011, the last day of the 2011 Legislative Session. The Senate 5 Senator Dixon described the re-enfranchisement bill as “a very big Black Caucus issue, primarily because so many of the Black voters in the state would be benefited.” 82 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 83 of 97 invoked cloture and passed HB 19 on a straight party-line vote. 6 All present Black senators voted against the bill. Governor Robert Bentley signed HB 19 into law on June 15, 2011. 7 This Photo ID Law, by its terms, did not go into effect immediately; and Alabama never sought preclearance under Section 5 of the VRA. Then, on June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Shelby County striking down Section 4(b) of the VRA. Twenty-four hours later, Alabama’s Attorney General and Secretary of State announced that the Photo ID Law could then move forward without preclearance. On June 29, 2013, the Secretary of State issued proposed administrative rules for the Photo ID Law. On October 22, 2013, the Secretary of State issued final administrative rules. B. Evidence that Discrimination was a Motivating Factor 6 When cloture is invoked, the Senate must wait (typically, for 20 minutes) before voting. At least one senator recalls Republican leadership holding the microphone for those twenty minutes with respect to HB 19. 7 In addition to passing HB 19, the same Alabama Legislature passed HB 56, an extensive immigration bill that required, among other things, proof of citizenship for voter registration. The legislators who sponsored HB 56 were largely the same as those who sponsored the Photo ID Law. This Court later held that federal law preempted several sections of HB 56, see United States v. Alabama, 691 F.3d 1269, 1280 (11th Cir. 2012), and that the section requiring verification of citizenship and immigration status of enrolling students violated the Equal Protection Clause, see Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama v. Governor of Alabama, 691 F.3d 1236, 1249 (11th Cir. 2012). The same Legislature also passed a state legislative redistricting plan that was later deemed to, in part, violate federal law because race predominated over traditional districting criteria in several districts. Alabama Leg. Black Caucus v. Alabama, 231 F. Supp. 3d 1026, 1033 (M.D. Ala. 2017) (on remand from Alabama Leg. Black Caucus v. Alabama, 575 U.S. 254 (2015)). 83 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 84 of 97 Statements made by some Alabama legislators about the need for a photo ID law are probative evidence of the Photo ID Law’s purpose—to suppress the minority vote. I start with Senator Larry Dixon. From the 1990s until his retirement in 2010, Senator Dixon sponsored photo identification bills like HB 19. During this time, Senator Dixon made repeated comments linking photo identification legislation to race, including “the fact you don’t have to show an ID is very beneficial to the Black power structure and the rest of the Democrats” and that voting without photo identification “benefits Black elected leaders, and that’s why they’re opposed to it.” While Senator Dixon retired in 2010, his influence can be seen in his recorded conversations with Senator Beason. In 2010, Senator Beason recorded himself in a meeting with Senators Dixon, Brooks, Glover, Sanford, and Waggoner, Representative Lewis, and legislative staffer Monica Cooper. In the recordings, Senator Dixon stated: “[j]ust keep in mind if [a pro-gambling] bill passes and we have a referendum in November, every black in this state will be bused to the polls. And that ain’t gonna help” . . . “[e]very black, every illiterate” would be “bused on HUD financed buses.” Senator Brooks added: “They won’t be bused as much as they will be up to the gambling.” Senator Beason chimed in: “That’s right. That’s right. This will be busing extra.” Senator Dixon went on to state that coach buses “will meet at the gambling casino to get free certificates for black[s],” with Senator Brooks adding: “Free buffet.” 84 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 85 of 97 Not a single legislator present during this conversation objected to this racist language. In a separate recorded meeting, Representative Lewis asked whether the predominantly Black residents of Greene County were “y’all’s Indians?” Senator Beason responded by referring to Black people as “Aborigines.”8 In a February 2011 speech, Senator Beason encouraged Republicans to “empty the clip, and do what has to be done” on immigration and stated that “Democrats do not want to solve the illegal immigration problem because they know, this is a fact, that when more illegal immigrants move into an area, when their children grow up and get the chance to vote, they vote for Democrats.” Senator Beason also referred to the children of immigrants as “anchor babies.” Representative Rich sponsored HB 19. In a statement posted on his personal website, Representative Rich expressed a concern that “[i]t is impossible for an area to assimilate the number of people that we have had forced on us.” Representative Rich was “primarily” concerned about “Hispanic” immigrants and their alleged inability “to speak English.” In his opening statement to the Legislature on HB 56, Representative Rich repeatedly conflated “illegal immigrants” and “Hispanics” when discussing the “kinds of social and economic 8 On June 17, 2011, just days after the conclusion of 2011 Legislative Session and the passage of the Photo ID Law, Senator Beason’s recorded conversations became publicly known through the trial testimony in McGregor, 824 F. Supp. 2d at 1344–48. On November 15, 2011, Alabama Senate leadership stripped Senator Beason of his powerful position as Chair of the Senate Rules Committee. He remained, however, in the Alabama Senate until 2014. 85 Case: 18-10151 Date Filed: 07/21/2020 Page: 86 of 97 problems” that HB 56 purportedly sought to address. Representative Rich stated that “[t]he major problem with illegals in [his] area is with Hispanics” and that he considered Latino U.S. citizens whose parents are undocumented to be a “drain on the taxpayers.”