U.S. judge orders 32 Florida counties to help Puerto Ricans vote

A federal judge on Friday ordered 32 Florida counties to provide sample Spanish language ballots that could help more than 30,000 Puerto Ricans, including many displaced by last year’s Hurricane Maria, to cast votes in the November election.

Chief Judge Mark Walker of the federal court in Tallahassee, the state capital, said failing to help eligible voters would likely violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which blocks states from conditioning the right to vote on an ability to understand English.

“Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” wrote Walker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. “Unique among Americans, they are not educated primarily in English - and do not need to be. But, like all American citizens, they possess the fundamental right to vote.”

The decision is a win for several non-profit groups promoting civic engagement in Hispanic communities, which last month sued Florida’s Secretary of State Kenneth Detzner and the elections supervisor in Alachua County, which includes the city of Gainesville.

"Chief Judge Mark Walker of the federal court in Tallahassee, the state capital, said failing to help eligible voters would likely violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which blocks states from conditioning the right to vote on an ability to understand English."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

The major constitutional problem with the English language aspect of the federal Voting Rights Act is this imo. The states have never amended the Constitution to expressly prohibit themselves from denying voting rights on the basis of a citizen not being able to understand English. (Spanish only Puerto Ricans arguably moved to the wrong state.)

Consider that each of the four voting rights amendment that the states have amended to the Constitution expressly gives the feds the power to protect only the criterion that a given voting rights amendment protects.

15th Amendment:
"Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation [emphasis added].”
19th Amendment:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation [emphasis added]."
24th Amendment:
"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation [emphasis added]".
26th Amendment:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation [emphasis added]."

In fact, note that a previous generation of state sovereignty-respecting Supreme Court justices had clarified that powers that the states haven’t reasonably constitutionally delegated to the feds are prohibited to the feds.

"From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

Also, note that the Court had clarified in Minor v. Happersett that citizenship does not automatically guarantee the right to vote.

“3. The right of suffrage was not necessarily one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that amendment does not add to these privileges and immunities. It simply furnishes additional guaranty for the protection of such as the citizen already had [emphasis added].” —Minor v. Happersett, 1874.

So what this misguided judge is doing imo, is not only trying to interfere with the constitutionally unchecked 10th Amendment-protected power of the sovereign states to discriminate against voters on the basis of language skills, but he is unthinkingly attempting to unconstitutionally expand the fed’s constitutionally limited powers by dong so.

Corrections, insights welcome.

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