Photo: ACS
A Black law professor who testified during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that his home state’s voter ID laws were among those that could be considered racist.
In a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution titled “Restoring the Voting Rights Act: Combating Discriminatory Abuses,” Cruz, the subpanel’s ranking member, asked each of the five witnesses to say whether they believed “voter ID laws” were “racist.”
Franita Tolson, vice dean for faculty and academic affairs and professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, was the first to respond, saying that “it depends” and that “one thing we have to stop doing is treating all voter ID laws as the same.”
Cruz asked her to clarify, adding, “What voter ID laws are racist?”
Tolson replied, “Apologies, Mr. Cruz. Your state of Texas, perhaps.”
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