A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas [official website] on Wednesday blocked [order, PDF] Texas from enforcing a revised voter identification law [SB 5 materials].

Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos had previously found that a 2011 law [SB 14 materials], which required voters to present a form of government-issued ID, discriminated [JURIST report] against blacks and Hispanics.

The revised law [JURIST report], which had been set to take effect in January, would permit voters to sign an affidavit and show other forms of identification. However, Ramos found that the revisions did not fix the problems of the original legislation:

SB 5 was passed only after SB 14 was held to be unconstitutionally discriminatory and while the remedies phase of this case remained pending, and a large part of what makes SB 14 discriminatory—placing a disproportionate burden on Hispanics and African-Americans through the selection of qualified photo IDs—remains essentially unchanged in SB 5.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state plans to appeal [press release].