Court dismisses ex-felons' voting-rights suit

By The Associated Press,
freedomforum.org staff

07.21.02

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MIAMI — A judge dismissed a lawsuit last week by a group seeking to overturn a Reconstruction-era state law banning ex-felons from voting for life.

The group's attorneys argued that an estimated 525,000 ex-convicts have been unconstitutionally disenfranchised by the law and that it disproportionately hurts blacks.

But U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled July 18 that the First Amendment does not guarantee felons the right to vote.

"The state has permissibly stripped plaintiffs of their right to vote along with other civil rights pursuant to their felony convictions," King wrote. "The state is not constitutionally obligated to return this right to them on completion of their sentence."

Under Florida law, the governor and Cabinet, serving as the state's Clemency Board, have the discretion to restore voting rights to ex-felons who apply after finishing their prison time and parole.

Thirty-seven states restore voting rights when sentences are completed. Delaware was the latest to drop its lifetime voting ban last year. Nine states ban voting by ex-felons, while four states have some form of a ban.

According to The Miami Herald, Florida's law was enacted in 1868 and updated in 1968. King said the eight plaintiffs presented evidence to suggest that Florida's policies disenfranchising felons were racially motivated in 1868. But he said they did not present any evidence proving that the Legislature that enacted the felon-disenfranchisement provision in 1968 did so to discriminate against blacks.

The Herald reported July 19 that the plaintiffs plan to appeal.