U.S. court to decide on felon voting rights in Florida

A lawsuit over felons' voting rights in Florida last Tuesday went to a federal appeals court, which will decide whether to order a trial in a dispute over whether the state's lifetime ban on felon voters is illegal. Lawyers for 600,000 former felons argued that Florida's lifetime ban should be tossed because it was originally adopted in 1868 to suppress the black vote. It is too late for the felons to get to vote in next week's presidential election, but their lawyers argue a new trial should be ordered for future elections. "This is not a commonplace ban on prisoner voting. We are dealing with permanent political disenfranchisement of 10 percent of African-American voters in the state of Florida," argued Jessie Allen, lawyer for the ex-felons, before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The argument was not about whether felons cannot be banned from voting anywhere -- 48 states ban felons from voting while they're in prison. Instead, lawyers argued over whether Florida's ban is illegal because it had racist intent when originally adopted. [more]

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