The attorney representing two Black Florida women who are trying to restore their voting rights after serving felony sentences invoked a novel claim involving the 19th Amendment during oral arguments this month before a federal appeals court.
The argument by the interim strategic litigation director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Nancy Abudu, represents an issue of “first impression” for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. That is, it’s a specific issue or argument that the court has not previously addressed.
In the ongoing case of McCoy v. DeSantis, the plaintiffs are seeking to overturn a Florida law, Senate Bill 7066, which requires that felons who have served their sentences must pay off court-related fines, restitution and associated fees before they can have their voting rights restored.
Amendment 4, which was passed by nearly two-thirds of Florida voters in 2018, gives felons a path to restore their voting rights, but the legislature specified that those with felony convictions have to pay off their legal financial obligations before they can cast their ballots.
In the SPLC’s case involving plaintiffs Rosemary McCoy and Sheila Singleton of Jacksonville, Abudu said during the July 22 oral arguments that Black women with criminal convictions face the most difficulty of any group, including male offenders, in finding employment so they can pay back their legal obligations and gain the right to vote. This consequence of SB 7066 violates the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, according to the complaint.
The SPLC expressed confidence that the novel legal argument had been ably presented.
“The court clearly understood the immense burdens imposed on our clients who, as Black women with past felony convictions in Florida, will likely never be able to vote as long as they must first pay thousands in legal financial obligations,’ Caren Short, the SPLC’s senior supervising attorney, said in an email to the Florida Record. “... We believe we satisfactorily answered (justices’) concerns and did what needed to be done to have the lower court’s decision on our claims overturned and Ms. McCoy and Ms. Singleton finally able to vote again.”
The full 11th Circuit has already ruled that SB 7066’s requirement for legal financial obligations be repaid prior to the restoration of voting rights serves a public interest. Those who are required to pay back those obligations will exercise their voting rights more responsibly than those who don’t, the court said last September.
A ruling on the 19th Amendment argument may not be handed down for several months, according to the SPLC.