Texas is 0 for 2 this week in complying with the Voting Rights Act, according to five federal judges sitting on two separate panels.

Should the state’s leaders now seriously reflect on whether they’re going too far in trying to institutionalize Republicans’ already substantial political advantage?

A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., said Thursday that Texas’ voter ID law unlawfully reduces the ability of racial minorities to effectively exercise their electoral rights. The ruling came just two days after a federal panel said lawmakers had violated the Voting Rights Act in drawing boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2002, sat on both panels and joined both rulings.

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