Posted on 07/21/2021 1:09:43 PM PDT by Jacquerie
A federal appeals court rendered a decisive victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative Republicans last year in upholding Florida’s law requiring felons to pay all fines, fees, and restitution before they can win back the right to vote under 2018’s Amendment 4.
But that ruling didn’t quite kill every challenge to the law, known as SB 7066.
Novel claims asserting violation of the Nineteenth Amendment, which extended to women the right to vote, are still alive and headed for oral arguments on Thursday in Atlanta.
"Neither the Supreme Court nor this court has ever addressed the appropriate legal standard that should be applied to a Nineteenth Amendment claim. This court and the parties will benefit from oral argument on a matter of first impression prior to the rendering of a decision of such precedential value,” lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center argued in a brief filed in March.
Ruling 6-4 in September, the appellate court dismissed challenges under the Fourteenth and Twenty-fourth amendments, including claims the state is depriving felons of the equal protection of the law.
The plaintiffs now before the court are Rosemary McCoy and Sheila Singleton, two Black women with felony records who have been denied the right to vote under the Florida law because their criminal records prevent them from getting jobs that would pay enough for them to satisfy restitution orders.
“The state should not be allowed to implement a felony re-enfranchisement scheme that creates an illusory right to vote for a subset of its citizens. Plaintiffs, therefore, respectfully ask this court to reverse the district court’s dismissal of their Fourteenth Amendment and Nineteenth Amendment claims. In the alternative, they request the case be remanded with instructions that the district court conduct the appropriate factual and legal analysis.”
(Excerpt) Read more at floridaphoenix.com ...
So, because they did something that put them into a bad situation, the rest of us have to suffer from MORE of their bad decisions?
Get two jobs to repay your fines, but don’t screw the rest of us because they already screwed up their lives!
I’ll bet you they voted in the last election anyway.
The state has not done this, so this is just posturing.
...their criminal records prevent them from getting jobs that would pay enough for them to satisfy restitution orders...
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That is a very strange allegation.
I wonder how large the restitution is. I can think of embezzlement schemes where the restitution would be $500,000. Well, it would take $25,000 per year for 20 years BEFORE interest.
So why is it my fault (or someone else’s fault) if the crime was so large that they haven’t (or can’t) make restitution?
Were that not the case, the text of an Amendment that literally said "Females shall not be denied the right to vote" (which is what idiots apparently think the text of the 19th Amendment means) would require that female babies who can't read, write nor speak be allowed to vote. That's clearly not what it means, and clearly not the original intent.
Excellent analysis.
the 19th amendment ... our nation’s biggest mistake ...
They haven’t paid their fines.
For the rest of us, a concealed weapon and firearm carry license can be purchased from the State (for a cost to cover criminal record check and photo) that is valid for about seven years and is renewable at cost. May not be what the 2nd Amendment says, but seems reasonable to me. I am happy with it.
The Fourteenth Amendment recognizes a state’s right to deny the vote to male citizens for “participation in rebellion, or other crime.” It doesn’t say anything about women since they were not allowed to vote anywhere in the US when the amendment was written.
...probably enough times to make up for any elections they missed while in the slammer.
Women (the weaker sex) should be allowed to be armed under all circumstances (if not just carrying for a dis-enfranchised male). They need the ability to defend themselves even more than males,
Right. The 14th doesn’t address women’s suffrage. It was left to the states.
what incentive is there to complete the restitution if their rights are restored? That’s the reward for completion...if your rights actually meant something to these to dopey broads.
Interesting that you are satisfied with only ONE HALF (or less) of your GOD GIVEN RIGHT!
I prefer to keep all portions of my GOD (not government) GIVEN RIGHTS!
This goes double for pregnant women (whether the dis-enfranchised citizen they are carrying is male or female).
New Jersey had allowed women to vote for a while (I think maybe only those who owned property) but that had ended. Wyoming Territory was the first to extend voting rights to women (in 1869) after that...they were hoping to get more women to come to the territory.
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