Texans often boast that “everything is bigger in Texas.” Yet when it comes to Texans exercising their constitutional rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has shown itself to be consistently in denial that the Texas Legislature effectively uses those vast distances to impede the exercise of fundamental rights.
In decisions about both the right to vote and to an abortion, the Fifth Circuit insists on discounting or ignoring altogether the lived realities of many who lack the time or money to travel great distances. In the abortion context, that travel is to one of a shrinking number of abortion providers. In the voting context, the court has simply refused to acknowledge the burden of getting to a Texas Department of Public Safety office to get the requisite voter ID.
