The Northern District (Federal) Court has issued a permanent injunction against the State of Florida's attempt to disenfranchise voters who have been convicted or a felony, served their time, and thought they had their rights restored by a strongly proposition, Proposition 4, only to have the Republican controlled legislature and governor slap a clever interpretation stating the felons can't vote unless they have paid all fines and costs surrounding the felony conviction.
I had blogged about the Florida Supreme Court advisory opinion, which showed how the ACLU and other organizations were sloppy in writing the proposition, which left this loophole wide open to enact the legislation, but wondered about whether a court, federal or state, could be ready to directly attack the idea of depriving felons of voting rights. I updated the post when the 11th Circuit (Federal) Court of Appeals started to move in my direction, holding if there is a genuine inability to pay, the felons who served their time should still be allowed to vote.
We now have a final and permanent injunction from the Northern District Court, using the 11th Circuit reasoning, and setting up a system for the State to follow, if it wants to review each and every felon's application. The State is likely to appeal, knowing it will lose in the 11th Circuit, but it most likely keeps the felons from voting this November. The State obviously hopes the more complaint Supreme Court majority of right wing justices will come to their rescue, as the current majority in the US Supreme Court is very much inclined to disenfranchise largely poor and minority people.
Here's hoping, too, the ACLU and other groups go again before the voters and revise Proposition 4 to say there is no need to pay off any unpaid fines or costs to vote. If a rich person is convicted of criminal fraud, and serves his or her time, and is out on the streets, the people who were defrauded don't need to be able have the fraudster not vote. They can go seek their restitution from the fraudster. I truly think the time has come for a proper textural and historical reading of the Fifteenth Amendment, and to join Vermont, Maine, and other civilized nations in restoring rights to felons, whether they are still in jail or have completed their sentences (or been deemed to have completed their sentences). Enough with this disenfranchisement.
