Xiomara Moore, The Texas Tribune

A federal judge ruled on Saturday that part of a Texas law that enacted new voting restrictions violated the U.S. Constitution by being too vague and restricting free speech.

The ruling, made by U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, immediately halted the state’s ability to investigate alleged cases of vote harvesting, such as the investigation into the League of United Latin American Citizens by Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Before today’s ruling, a person who knowingly provided or offered vote harvesting services in exchange for compensation was committing a third-degree felony. This meant that organizers of voter outreach organizations and even volunteers could spend up to ten years in prison and fined up to $10,000 for giving or offering these services.

According to Republican lawmakers, the provision was put in place to prevent voter fraud and secure election integrity. However, in the ruling, the judge noted that there was widespread confusion about how to implement the canvassing restriction from local election administrators. This confusion also left voter outreach organizations uncertain about whether they could provide volunteers with food or bus fare because it could look like compensation.

Many organizations – including La Union del Pueblo Entero, LULAC, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – have filed lawsuits against many other provisions of the law, including voter assistance and mail-in ballot restrictions. The challenges to these provisions have not been ruled on yet. The original complaints were filed in August and September 2021.

Before the law, organizations like OCA-Greater Houston, an advocacy organization for people of Asian and Pacific Island descent, would host in-person election events and allow attendees to bring their mail-in ballots in order to receive help like language assistance.

Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at MALDEF, wrote that “Today’s ruling means that voter outreach organizers and other advocates in Texas can speak to mail ballot voters about issues on the ballot and urge voters to support improvements to their communities.”

ACLU of Texas celebrated the ruling on X saying, “This is a win for voting rights in the state, and for the organizations that help keep elections accessible.”

Reference

U.S. District Court ruling

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/28/texas-vote-harvesting-law-unconstitutional/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

The game company Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $15 million, accusing the corporation that launches rockets from Texas of illegally trespassing on South Texas land and destroying property.

The lawsuit, filed in Cameron County, was posted on a website the company is using to call attention to the civil battle. The suit claims that SpaceX has used Cards Against Humanity’s once “pristine” property filled with wild grass and cacti and changed the entire dynamic of the area by using the land as a construction staging site. SpaceX acquired vacant lots along the same road as the property and has constructed buildings around the area. According to pictures included in the lawsuit, the property now looks like an unfinished worksite filled with machinery and piles of materials.

In 2017, Cards Against Humanity created a crowd-funding campaign, called CAH Saves America, to buy land that would block the construction of a border barrier former President Donald Trump vowed to build along Texas’ boundary with Mexico. As a part of the campaign,150,000 people paid $15 each to protect a piece of land along the U.S.-Mexico border and three miles away from SpaceX’s launch facility. Cards against Humanity now owns the property.

If Cards Against Humanity wins the lawsuit, it said it they will equally split the lawsuit’s net proceeds among all 150,000 of the contributors, up to $100 each.

“150,000 people gave us their hard-earned money, and in exchange we vowed to protect this land from racist billionaires and their dumb vanity projects,” the company said on their website devoted to the lawsuit.

Cards Against Humanity isn’t alone in criticizing SpaceX’s arrival in the region. In a Reuters article published Friday, several people across South Texas, including residents in Brownsville, have voiced their concerns about Musk’s encroachment on their properties saying that this is an example of unchecked expansion.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/21/spacex-elon-musk-cards-against-humanity-lawsuit/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.