Florida can’t bar felons from registering to vote over fees and fines, court rules
Florida cannot bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Tallahassee federal judge’s preliminary injunction that the implementation of Amendment 4 – approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 to allow most felons who served their time to regain the right to vote – amounted to an unfair poll tax that would disenfranchise many of them.
A spokeswoman for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said the state will immediately ask the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider the ruling. In addition, a full trial on the issue is set to begin this spring.
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there was an ACLU case about voting several years ago and was supposed to be continued/postponed or something until early 2019 and then this Amendment passed and nothing ever happened in that case.
in fact, just this evening i received an email from ACLU about a party in Deberry, FL. about this decision. i responded back asking if past convicted people that have a sex crime conviction will be included. I’m not counting on receiving a reply.
1.6 million felons in the state of Florida… and the losing candidates up for offices wonder why they missed by a margin. Unfucking real.
If there are 1.6 million felons just in one state, imagine how many there are nation wide. And how many more there will be since crime will never cease and people with no criminal records do shit that gets them a criminal record.
Now that Amendment 4 has apparently become law, when is the ACLU going to carry out their promise to us?
As a side note, YESTERDAY was the last day to register for voting in Floriduh’s March 17 primary. Good timing on that decision. Coincidence? NOTHING is a coincidence!
In reference to Amendment 4 – I am very glad for those felons who are or will someday be able to vote once again. I have always been a political junkie, but since 2001 have been barred from voting. Is there any chance that, down the road, we can collectively file a class action suit, claiming that certain felons, namely us registered sex offenders, were excluded for life, solely for our “Scarlett Letter” labels. I mean, really, “with liberty and justice for all” sure sounds good, but doesn’t apply to us in the least.
I suppose that my next question would be “can Florida keep any ex-felons from registering to vote if they have paid their debt to society and are tax paying, law abiding citizens…even registered citizens and murderers?” On what constitutional grounds are denial of voting rights withheld?
Amendment 4 amended the Florida Constitution to exclude registrants and murderers.
Doesn’t that make the Florida Constitution in violation of the US Constitution?
It is rare for the entire 11th Circuit Court (aka en banc court) to hear a case because doing so is a sort of smack to the face of the 3 judge panel, unless the en banc court wants to affirm the 3 judge panel. So, we’ll see what happens.