Judge Strikes Down Felon Disenfranchisement System in Florida

[Gothmog]

Source: Mother Jones

A federal judge in Florida has struck down Florida’s system for determining which ex-felons have the right to vote, handing an unexpected victory to advocates of broader voting rights.

Florida is one of a handful of states that permanently disenfranchise convicted felons, even after they have completed the terms of their sentence. The result is that more than 1.5 million Floridians are barred from voting, including 20 percent of voting-age African Americans. In November, Floridians will vote on a constitutional amendment to overturn the state’s disenfranchisement law.

Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Thursday does not address the legality of felon disenfranchisement, but rather the manner in which the state haphazardly restores voting rights to some former felons. In Florida, felons must individually apply for rights restoration, often imploring the governor and his Cabinet in person for their rights. That practice, detailed in 2015 by Mother Jones, makes restoring a person’s suffrage a personal decision by top state officials. Governors often determine whether to restore a citizen’s voting rights based on unrelated matters, such as his religiosity or number of traffic citations. Sometimes, the voting rights group challenging Florida’s regime has argued in this case, Republican governors may be swayed to restore voting rights to ex-felons who will vote for Republicans.

“In Florida, elected, partisan officials have extraordinary authority to grant or withhold the right to vote from hundreds of thousands of people without any constraints, guidelines, or standards,” Walker wrote in his opinion. “The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not.” Walker’s ruling, which came without holding a trial, found that Florida’s process violates the First Amendment as well as the 14th, which extends equal protection of the law to all residents.

Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/judge-strikes-down-felon-disenfranchisement-system-in-florida/

---

Felon disenfranchisement is a holdover from the Jim Crow days. There is also a ballot issue on the 2018 ballot on re-enfranchisement of citizens who have served their sentences

[Gothmog]

1. Judge rules Floridas arbitrary felon voting rights restoration scheme unconstitutional; remedy not

From Prof. Hasen's Election law blog http://electionlawblog.org/?p=97304

Release via email:

United States District Court Judge Mark E. Walker ruled Florida’s voting rights restoration scheme violates the First Amendment rights of free association and free expression, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The decision, issued today, affirmed that the First Amendment protects the right to vote – “the beating heart of our democratic government” – and concluded that the process by which Florida officials grant or deny former felons’ restoration of voting rights applications is unconstitutionally arbitrary. Judge Walker ordered further briefing from the parties on the appropriate remedy. Florida’s former felons still cannot register or vote.

“The question is whether the Clemency Board’s limitless power over Plaintiffs’ vote-restoration violates their First Amendment rights to free association and free expression. It does. This should not be a close question,” Judge Walker stated in the decision.

The lawsuit was filed in March 2017 by the national voting rights organization, Fair Elections Legal Network, and the law firm, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, on behalf of a proposed class of almost 1.5 million former felons who have completed their full sentences.

Citing a long line of Supreme Court cases striking down laws which give officials unrestricted power to control First Amendment rights, the Court concluded that the absence of any constraints on the Executive Clemency Board’s power to restore or deny voting rights “risks—if not covertly authorizes the practice of—arbitrary and discriminatory vote-restoration.”

“Today a federal court said what so many Floridians have known for so long—that the state’s arbitrary restoration process, which forces former felons to beg for their right to vote, violates the oldest and most basic principles of our democracy,” said Jon Sherman, Senior Counsel at Fair Elections Legal Network. “While the Court has yet to order a remedy in this case, it has held in no uncertain terms that a state cannot subject U.S. citizens’ voting rights to the limitless power of government officials.”

The Court’s order also stated that, “In Florida, elected, partisan officials have extraordinary authority to grant or withhold the right to vote from hundreds of thousands of people without any constraints, guidelines, or standards. The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not.”

“We are very happy with the Court’s ruling as it provides our country’s most basic rights to be restored to those who have served their time. No longer can politicians arbitrarily deny fundamental rights to citizens of the State of Florida,” said Theodore Leopold, partner with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.

The decision concluded, “If any one of these citizens wishes to earn back their fundamental right to vote, they must plod through a gauntlet of constitutionally infirm hurdles. No more.”

This is an important development on voting rights

[marybourg]

2. So the headline is inaccurate. It's a

good ruling. Too bad the headline writer thought it needed exaggeration.

[Gothmog]

11. The headline is accurate

Florida has a system of felon disenfranchisement that is being struck down.

[marybourg]

15. No. Makes no change in the system of felon disenfranchisement.

Only in the remediation. 3rd paragraph:

"Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Thursday does not address the legality of felon disenfranchisement, but rather the manner in which the state haphazardly restores voting rights to some former felons."

[Gothmog]

17. The remedial order is to follow

[MichMan]

3. The upcoming ballot proposal specifically exempted murderers and sex offenders from voting

Has this latest ruling from the judge removed that exception?

[Gothmog]

6. I have not read the opinion yet.

Here is a link http://fairelectionsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/144-Order-Granting-Plaintiffs-Motion-for-Summary-Judgment.pdf

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Wish we could punish voter fraud..like in CO..guy just got probation and

community service..can still vote - if you commit voter fraud you should not be able to vote..ever!

[GeoWilliam750]

5. Are the numbers right?

1.5 million felons in a population of 20 million. Although I am not sure what the percentage of the population is over 18, the above numbers suggest that nearly 1 in 10 of Florida residents is an ex-con.

The headline is highly misleading.

[Gothmog]

7. Restoration of ex-felon voting rights may have helped in Virginia

The GOP is fighting the restoration of voting rights to ex-felons for a reason. If the franchise is restored to ex-felons, then that would help turn Florida blue

[BigmanPigman]

8. This is not over yet.

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/01/federal-judge-strikes-down-floridas-system-for-restoring-felon-voting-rights/?utm_source=WTF+Just+Happened+Today%3F&utm_campaign=03f255f358-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_1_19_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9813b73b1a-03f255f358-163515601
The state of Florida routinely violates the constitutional rights of its citizens by permanently revoking the "fundamental right" to vote for anyone convicted of a felony, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said the Florida "scheme" unfairly relies on the personal support of the governor for citizens to regain the right to vote. In a strongly-worded ruling, he called the state's defense of voter disenfranchisement "nonsensical," a withering criticism directed at Gov. Rick Scott, the lead defendant in the case.

[mountain grammy]

9. This is good news

[paulkienitz]

10. YES!! YES!!

This poll-tax-esque loophole has needed striking down for a long time.

[ornotna]

12. It wasn't always this way in Florida

30 years ago most rights were routinely restored after a felon served his time and completed parole.

[safeinOhio]

13. Great news.

We have to make every state a Right-to-Vote State, with moves like this one.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Big ####ing step forward! Thank you, Gothmog. Excellent timing. n/t

[Gothmog]

16. This makes me smile

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

18. 🌊🌊🌊 #FlipItBlue #BlueWave2018