Jasmine Crockett Suffers Brutal Legal Defeat

A U.S. court of appeals on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision allowing a Texas law to stand that requires voters to present IDs to receive mail-in ballots, a policy that Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) has openly admitted cost Democrats some votes in the 2024 election.

Crockett, speaking Monday night on MSNBC, denounced the court’s decision and admitted that Democrats’ “numbers fell” in her home state after the Republican-controlled legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott passed into law requirements for voter ID with mail-in ballots. She accused state GOP lawmakers of taking their vote “in the dark.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen our numbers fall now that they’ve had these voter restrictions in place,” she told a panel.

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The new law, passed in 2021, invalidated swaths of mail-in ballots that Crockett alleged may have swayed a number of close races. While Texas is not competitive for Democrats at a statewide level, the party counts 12 members of Congress who hail from Texas.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the bill, known as SB1, did not violate federal law preventing states from enacting security requirements that are “not material” to the validity of ballots, according to Politico.

A nine-page decision by Judge James Ho said the panel had “little difficulty” determining that the law was valid.

“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is who he claims he is,” Ho wrote for the panel. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”

As part of the law, voters are required to list their names and home addresses. Justices said both requirements are simply restating publicly available information.

“That information is easily available to anyone who simply requests it,” wrote Ho, a Trump appointee. “As a result, any person can request and receive that information about a registered voter, use that information to apply for a mail-in ballot, and then cast the ballot, with minimal risk of detection.”

Ho was joined in his ruling by Judge Don Willett, another Trump appointee, and Judge Patrick Higginbotham, a Reagan appointee, the outlet reported.

The decision may be seen as a boon to Republicans in Congress, where House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) continues to wrestle with passage of the SAVE Act, legislation that would require new voters to present proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

House lawmakers passed the bill in April, and it has languished in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate since then. A number of moderate Republicans may prove difficult to win over to secure its passage, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2026.