The effects of coronavirus on Florida’s court system don’t appear to be slowing efforts to resolve a dispute over felon voting, with a federal trial set for later this month and the number of potential plaintiffs expanding into the thousands.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had sought an en banc, or full court, hearing about this issue before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The governor opposes a federal injunction barring enforcement of a state law that requires felons who have served their sentences to pay all court-ordered fines and restitution before they can vote. Late last month, the court turned down the request.
“The petition for rehearing en banc is denied, no judge in regular active service on the court having requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc,” the 11th Circuit said in a March 31 statement.
The U.S. District judge who issued the injunction against Senate Bill 7066 said this week he intends to approve class certification to plaintiffs in the underlying trial over the felon voting dispute. Judge Robert Hinkle wrote that two detailed reports show thousands of felons in Florida cannot afford to pay their legal financial obligations.
“Still others are unable to pay because the amount owed is out of reach even for a person who is not indigent,” Hinkle wrote in the April 7 order certifying the class and subclass.
Plaintiffs in the case argue that SB 7066’s restrictions on felon voting amount to a poll tax. The bill was passed last year to outline how felon voting would proceed in the wake of voters passing a constitutional amendment allowing nonviolent felons to vote after serving their time.
Despite court limitations due to the coronavirus situation, Hinkle plans to oversee the two-week trial at the U.S. District Court in Pensacola using teleconferencing.
Nancy Abudu, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the new developments in the felon voting litigation were good news for plaintiffs represented by SPLC.
“The panel at the 11th Circuit unanimously ruled that our clients’ right to vote cannot be conditioned on the amount of money in their bank account, and the full 11th Circuit declined to hear Gov. DeSantis’ appeal,” Abudu told the Florida Record in an email.
Abudu said she looked forward to being at the district court level later this month so she and other attorneys can argue why SB 7066 is poor public policy.
“It’s past time for the state of Florida to fix its election systems and stop trying to prevent poor people from exercising their right to vote,” she said.