felon disenfranchisement is constitutional and justified

• felon disenfranchisement is constitutional and justified
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Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow, President and General Counsel, Center for Equal Opportunity, Felon Voting and Unconstitutional Congressional Overreach, John Durham Shouldn’t Play Politics With Russian Collusion Report, Ambush Attacks on Police: Sadly Predictable Result of Lies, Overheated Rhetoric, An Honest Conversation About Jacob Blake, Noncompliance, and Policing Reform, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/171656NCJRS.pdf, http://www.ceousa.org/issues/693-the-fox-is-guarding-the-henhouse, http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx, http://www.demos.org/blog/2/13/14/racist-history-behind-felony-disenfranchisement-laws, http://www.brennancenter.org/legislation/testimony-prof-burt-neuborne-support-hr-3335-democracy-restoration-act, http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/art1frag18_user.html, http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=10780, https://commonwealth.virginia.gov/judicial-system/restoration-of-rights/, http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=news&id=969, http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/map/, http://www.legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_disenfranchisement1104.msp, http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rpasfi2686.pdf. Under both federal and most state laws, felons also cannot possess a gun. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment specifically provides that states may abridge the right to vote of citizens “for participation in rebellion, or other crime.” The Fourteenth Amendment recognized a process that goes back to ancient Greece and Rome, as even opponents of felon disenfranchisement have recognized. States are and should be entitled to make their own decisions on this issue—a prerogative that includes implementing procedures to ensure that those who injure or murder their fellow citizens, steal, or damage our democracy by committing election crimes or engaging in public corruption like bribery have demonstrated that they can now be trusted again to exercise all of the rights of full citizenship. A whole host of “collateral consequences” imposed by states and the federal government, such as limitations on types of employment, access to financial aid, and housing restrictions, arguably pose far greater impediments to reintegration into society than are imposed by felony disenfranchisement laws. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. [4] 18 U.S.C. Accordingly, it is prudent for Congress to leave such determinations to the states. Felony convictions, unlike the applications of the poll tax, is linked to the individual choices and conscious behavior of the particular person. (2010) (testimony of Burt Neuborne). State and federal laws also prohibit felons from owning or even possessing a gun. 52, Madison stated that to have left such qualifications open to “the regulation of the Congress” would be improper. [36] Alexis D. Cooper, Matthew R. Durose, & Howard N. Snyder, Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 states in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010, 1. 97-205, § 3. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”, [Note: The bolded sentence is also known as the “Equal Protection Clause.”], “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. For a discussion of the Voting Rights Act and black disenfranchisement, see Shapiro, Challenging Criminal Disenfranchisement; Alice E. Harvey, Comment, Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement and its Influence on the Black Vote: The Need for a Second Look, 142 U. Pa. L. Rev. at 1234). § 46.04 (“A person who has been convicted of a felony commits an offense if he possesses a firearm”); Va. Code § 18.2-308.2; and Fl. Is it too much to demand that those who would make the laws for others—who would participate in self-government—be willing to follow those laws themselves? “By denying the vote to those who have not paid their LFOs [Legal Financial Obligations], the State of Washington distributes this findamental right [to vote] on the constitutionally impermissible basis of wealth. (a) The understanding of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, as reflected in the express language of 2 of the Amendment, which exempts from the sanction of reduced congressional representation resulting from the denial of citizens’ right to vote, the denial of such right for ‘participation in rebellion, or other crime,’ and in the historical and judicial interpretation of the Amendment’s applicability to state laws disenfranchising felons, is of controlling significance in distinguishing such laws from those other state limitations on the franchise that this Court has held invalid under the Equal Protection Clause.”, “Interestingly, it appears that, like the international context, the Framers [of the U.S. Constitution] also viewed disenfranchisement along a continuum, intending the phrase ‘or other crime’ to apply only to crimes of rebellion or disloyalty to the state, such as treason…, [W]e should care about felon disenfranchisement because it inherently contradicts the rest of our constitutional jurisprudence on the right of every citizen to vote. [17] See Roger Clegg, Who Should Vote? This violates both the Federal and State Constitutions.”, Dec. 8, 2005 American Civil Liberties Union, “As noted, a decision by a state not to extend the right to vote to convicted felons enjoys express constitutional sanction. § 922(g); see, e.g., Tex. 2006); Simmons v. Galvin, 575 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. In other words, states would be forced to allow individuals who intentionally broke the law to vote for those who make the laws—and in some cases enforce the laws—even though they have not completed all of the terms and conditions of their sentences. ", ProCon.org. If restoring the right of felons to vote helps to reintegrate them into society, why does Senator Paul’s bill not also amend federal law to allow them once again to own a gun? 101 (2004). The policy arguments in favor of automatically restoring the rights of all felons to vote are unpersuasive. [11] Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza, Democratic Contraction? For example, Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, the leading advocacy organization against disenfranchisement, believes that “people in prison should have the right to vote”—not just felons who have completed their sentences and been released.[40]. Congress can determine only “the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes.” Thus, under these provisions, Congress has no authority to tell the states that they must allow felons to vote in presidential elections. Much of this was presented to Congress in Hearing on H.R. The fact that no such challenges are being brought indicates that such evidence likely does not exist. 3335, the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009 Before the Subcomm. It should also be irrelevant as a matter of policy. Alabama Const., Art. This nation maintains certain minimum, objective standards of responsibility, trustworthiness, and commitment to our laws for those who are allowed to participate in the solemn enterprise of self-government. Just as one cannot presume that all felons are to be mistrusted with the ballot, it would be wrong to assume that all convicted felons can be trusted to vote in a responsible manner and therefore should be allowed to vote. The United States Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly authorizes denying citizens’ voting rights due to criminal conviction — dealing a heavy blow to any hopes of using the constitution to overturn felony disenfranchisement laws. Other than Justice Black, the remaining four non-dissenting Justices relied on interpretations of Congress’s enforcement authority under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments that are inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s subsequent rulings in Richardson v. Ramirez and City of Boerne v. “Under today’s standards, Congress will have to come up with significant evidence of intentional state racial discrimination to justify a felon disenfranchisement ban under its 14th or 15th amendment enforcement powers. [34] “Jailhouse Vote,” The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 7, 1999), http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=10780. Introduction. [43] Johnson v. Bush, 214 F.Supp.2d 1333, 1341 (S.D. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. In the United States, the policy of denying criminal offenders the right to vote was adapted from the English tradition of “attainder,” as well as earlier notions of “outlawry” in continental Europe and infamia in ancient Greece and Rome. This will probably always be the case, with the groups changing over time and with the country’s demography. This case involved Alabama’s 1901 Constitution, which disenfranchised persons convicted not just of felonies, but of misdemeanors “involving moral turpitude,” a catch-all phrase that was used by state officials specifically to target black Alabamians. “These laws have a disproportionate racial impact.” Undoubtedly, the reason that there is heightened interest in this subject is that a large percentage of felons are African Americans, although in absolute numbers, more whites are affected by felon disenfranchisement than blacks. Congress does not have the authority to force states to restore the voting rights of convicted felons—even in federal elections. If large numbers of young people, black people, or males are committing crimes, then our efforts should be focused on solving those problems. […]. Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 67 American Sociological Rev. Last modified on August 18, 2008. Rev. Not allowing criminals to vote is also a form of punishment and a method of stigmatization that tells criminals that committing a serious crime puts them outside the circle of responsible citizens. Felon disenfranchisement ‘does not deny any citizen, ab initio, the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.’, The cause of disenfranchisement is simply that the felon’s ‘conscious decision to commit a criminal act for which they assume the risks of detection and punishment.'”. Hans von Spakovsky Section 2. How to cite this page. As amended in 1982, the legislation bars voting qualifications, practices, etc. L. & Pol. What is more, as the Eleventh Circuit said when it concluded that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act did not apply to Florida’s voting rules for felons, any contrary view would raise “serious constitutional problems because such an interpretation allows a congressional statute to override the text of the Constitution.”[31], The bottom line is that S. 2550 is unconstitutional and invades power specifically reserved to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment and by Article I and other sections of the Constitution. After all, the unfortunate truth is that most people who walk out of prison will be walking back in eventually. Requiring a waiting period and an application process is fair and reasonable given the high recidivism rate found among felons. “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”, “Given contemporary voting rights doctrine, if disenfranchisement is to be justified at all, it must be justified as an appropriate punishement. For instance, if convicted criminals can be trusted to exercise the right to vote, and if restoring that ability will help to integrate such criminals back into society, then why are their rights to public employment not restored? [25] Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974); City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997). While felony disenfranchisement has long been accepted, the legal justifications are far from conclusive. In fact, the Constitution gives the states authority to determine the qualifications of voters in those states. Not everyone in the United States may vote: Thus, children, noncitizens, and those who are adjudicated to be mentally incompetent are not allowed to vote.

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