By Refusing To Intercede, U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Felons From Voting In Next Month’s Primaries

From the Florida Phoenix:

By Michael Moline

July 16, 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively denied thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of Floridians who’ve been convicted of felonies the right to vote in the state’s Aug. 18 primary elections.

The justices did so by refusing to lift an intermediate appellate court’s stay of a court order that would have allowed many felons to vote notwithstanding any outstanding “legal financial obligations,” including fees, fines, and restitution.

Thursday’s vote was 7-3, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a dissent for herself and justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.

“This court’s order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida’s primary election simply because they are poor,” Sotomayor wrote.

“And it allows the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to disrupt Florida’s election process just days before the July 20 voter-registration deadline for the August primary, even though a preliminary injunction had been in place for nearly a year and a federal district court had found the state’s pay-to-vote scheme unconstitutional after an 8-day trial.”

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled on May 24 that the state law implementing 2018’s Amendment 4 amounted to a “pay-to-vote” scheme because it imposed a financial burden on felons’ voting rights with no regard for their ability to pay — or even find out what if anything they owe.

Sotomayor noted that the state estimates it might take six years to figure out who owes what. She also noted: “Under this scheme, nearly a million otherwise-eligible citizens cannot vote unless they pay money.”

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit had already endorsed Hinkle’s line of reasoning but the full court voted earlier this month to consider the matter “en banc,” or as a committee of the whole. As Sotomayor noted, that court will hear arguments on the day of the primary.

Among the grounds for overruling the 11th Circuit, she wrote, are that the case is likely to land before the Supreme Court eventually; the rights of the parties “may be seriously and irreparably injured by the stay;” and that “the court of appeals is demonstrably wrong.””

“This court’s inaction continues a trend of condoning disfranchisement,” she wrote.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.