TALLAHASSEE – Hundreds of thousands of felons may not be able to cast ballots in the presidential election after a split federal appeals court upheld a Florida law requiring them to pay all legal financial obligations before they can vote.
In a 6-to-4 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit came down on the side of Senate Bill 7066, which the state legislature passed in the wake of voters giving many felons a path to voting. SB 7066, however, required them to finish their sentences and pay all legal debts and obligations related to their crimes.
Plaintiffs and groups supporting expanded voting rights challenged the law and equated its provisions to an unconstitutional “poll tax.” Plaintiffs’ attorneys prevailed in federal district court but came up short as the litigation moved before the 10 appeals court justices.
“Because the felons failed to prove a violation of the Constitution, we reverse the judgment of the district court and vacate the challenged portions of its injunction,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote for the majority.
Ultimately, the issue may end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, according to one of the groups representing plaintiffs.
“We can appeal to SCOTUS,” a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told the Florida Record, “but are still making a decision on that in coordination with our co-counsel.”
One of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the Jones v. Florida case said the appeals court ruling would disenfranchise more than 700,000 Floridians as the fall election approaches.
“The state of Florida throughout this litigation has never denied its system of telling returning citizens the amount of their legal financial obligations (LFOs) is an 'administrative nightmare,' but the court’s decision … said bafflingly the state had no obligation to provide that information to Floridians with previous felony convictions,” Nancy Abudu, the SPLC’s deputy legal director, said in a statement emailed to the Record.
The appeals court took issue with this position and concluded that Florida’s implementation of Amendment 4, the ballot measure giving felons a path to voting, does not prevent felons from taking advantage of the measure’s provisions.
“Eighty-five thousand felons are now registered voters, and each one will remain so unless Florida meets its self-imposed burden of gathering the information necessary to prove his ineligibility,” the 11th Circuit decision states. “Our dissenting colleagues ... point to no evidence that any of the 85,000 voters will be unable to cast a ballot in an upcoming election.”
No rehabilitative benefits will result from denying voting rights to those felons who cannot pay their LFOs, the plaintiffs argue, but the appeals court found states have the ability to impose financial requirements on felons before they can vote.
“States may restrict voting by felons in ways that would be impermissible for other citizens,” the court said. “... States may unquestionably require felons to complete their terms of imprisonment and parole before regaining the right to vote.”