[U.S. Supreme Court declines to invervene in felon voting rights issue]

First Shot
Last Call, Florida Politics, 7/16/2020



The long-running fight over felon voting rights made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it declined to intervene.

The high court’s action, or lack thereof, doesn’t mark the end of the voting rights saga. The case is still set to go before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 18 — the same day as Florida’s primary election.

Chances are, no matter which way the appeals court leans in its ruling, the case will end up before the Supreme Court.

Still, the decision does quash any hope that voters with felony records would be able to vote next month.

Voting rights advocates had wanted the court to overrule the 11th Circuit’s decision to block a lower court judge’s ruling that would have allowed felons to register to vote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, penned a dissent arguing that the 11th Circuit’s override would block “thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida’s primary election simply because they are poor.”

She later likened it to a “voter paywall.”

That aligns with the plaintiffs’ argument that the implementing bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year is effectively a poll tax, which is a violation of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution.

“This is a deeply disappointing decision,” said Paul Smith, vice president of the Campaign Legal Center. “Florida’s voters spoke loud and clear when nearly two-thirds of them supported rights restoration at the ballot box in 2018. The Supreme Court stood by as the 11th Circuit prevented hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida’s primary election simply because they can’t afford to pay fines and fees. We look forward to continuing to fight for Florida voters so they can participate in the General Election in November.”

The law’s defenders, however, point to the text of the amendment approved by Florida voters in 2018. Specifically, that felons must “complete all terms of their sentence” before they can have their voting rights restored.