AUSTIN – Election Day has come and gone but the court battle over Texas’ controversial voter-identification law rages on.

In documents filed in federal court late last week, the U.S. Justice Department argued that not only does the 2011 law violate the voting rights of minority Texans, but that the elected leaders who pushed the measure known as Senate Bill 14 through the Legislature intended to disenfranchise those voters.

“This discriminatory impact was not merely an unintended consequence of SB 14,” the Justice Department said in its filing. “It was, in part, SB 14’s purpose. Compelling evidence establishes that Texas enacted SB 14 at least in part because of its detrimental effects on African-American and Hispanic voters.”

In a rebuttal document, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office flatly rejected the assertion, saying the Republican-dominated Legislature passed the bill because of public concern over voter fraud that had lingered since the disputed presidential election of 2000.

“The baseless narrative promoted by Plaintiffs ignores not only the legislative record but also the historical context of S.B. 14, which begins with the 2000 election — a watershed moment when many citizens questioned the confidence they had in American electoral systems, in light of that year’s hotly contested presidential election” the attorney general’s brief states. “In the aftermath, a consensus developed that numerous changes needed to be made, including changes to address potential voter fraud.”

• History of the voter ID lawsuit

U.S. District Judge Gonzales of Corpus Christi ruled in 2014 that the Texas law violates the Voting Rights Act by having an “impermissible effect” on minority voters and places an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. This summer, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the law endangers the voting rights of blacks and Hispanics and instructed the trial court to fix it.

During the recently concluded election cycle, the court ordered the state make allowances for Texans who could not reasonably obtain an approved form of voter ID and it ordered a public education campaign to inform voters of how the law works.

Paxton office has appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia is seen as evenly split between conservative and liberal factions. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to fill the high court’s one vacancy after he take office in January.

In the latest chapter of the Texas voter ID battle, which began in earnest during the 2005 legislative session, the Justice Department said Republican leaders, including then-Gov. Rick Perry and then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst pushed for voter ID because state’s fast-growing minority populations overwhelmingly support Democrats at the ballot box.

While outnumbered Democratic lawmakers were able to derail voter ID bills from 2005 through 2009, the Justice Department said, Republicans employed extraordinary methods, including changing legislative rules, to win passage when their party won super-majorities after the 2010 elections.

Abbott’s brief said the assertion has doesn’t hold up. During the trial, the plaintiffs could not establish that any of Senate Bill 14’s backers intended to impede the voting rights of minorities, his brief said.

“They have no evidence that any legislator acted with a racially discriminatory purpose, let alone that S.B. 14’s proponents engaged in a silent conspiracy to discriminate against minority voters,” the court document states. “On the contrary, the record confirms that the Texas Legislature acted to combat voter fraud and safeguard voter confidence.

“Texas’s efforts at mitigating the burden of S.B. 14 on eligible voters can be seen in the fact that plaintiffs found no evidence of a single identifiable voter whom S.B. 14 will prevent from voting.”