The enactment of voter ID laws was made possible by a 2013 Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required nine mostly Southern states with a history of discrimination against blacks to seek approval before changing election laws.

But Obama says attacks on their voting rights aren’t the main reason Americans don’t vote – many just don’t bother.

Obama discussed the landmark voting law at a national teleconference in the afternoon with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and voting rights advocates.

“The state of Alabama and her people played pivotal roles and were featured in defining moments in the civil rights movement”, Secretary Merrill said. This case will go back to the U.S. District Court, which will make its own ruling about the intentions of the voter ID laws.

“My guess is we will get some guidance one way or another”, said Bruce Elfant, Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voting Registrar.

As House Democrats celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, they renewed their criticisms of the state’s voter ID requirement that was passed in 2013.

During his address, Obama praised the leaders and activists of the Civil Rights Era who pushed President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the VRA into law in 1965, marking the end of discriminatory practices that strategically prevented people of color from voting.

Texas is not the only state that enforced restrictive voter ID laws.

The Wednesday decision concurs with a 2014 ruling by a federal district court in Texas, which also deemed that the law had a discriminatory effect on voters.

Fifty years after the still-controversial Voting Rights Act was enacted, President Obama wants Congress to update the law.

It should be a day for remembering the courageous souls who died in the voting rights struggle – and the thousands of others who risked life and limb to right the great injustice that Johnson said “no American, in his heart, can justify”. Since then, there’s been a fierce political and legal battle over the law’s future. A week ago I joined with my Congressional colleagues to call for restoring the legislation to ensure that each and every eligible American has the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

The law, he said, “was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy”, adding that previous renewals were signed by former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, both Republicans.