The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting by people convicted of a wide range of felonies, a policy adopted in 1890 during the Jim Crow era that stands as one of the toughest such restrictions in the nation.
The justices turned away an appeal of a lower court’s decision rejecting a lawsuit that claimed that the ban – a provision of the Mississippi constitution that applies even after a sentence has been completed – violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of equal protection and Eighth Amendment bar on cruel and unusual punishments.
The class action suit was brought in 2018 by six Mississippi men – including white and Black plaintiffs – who lost the right to vote even though they have completed their sentences for various felonies, including grand larceny and receiving stolen property.
The case centers on Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, which denies people who have been convicted of a range of felonies the right to vote for life. The range of crimes include murder, rape, bribery, theft, forgery and arson, but lawyers for the plaintiffs have said it applies regardless of the seriousness of the felony, even “writing a bad check for $100 or stealing $250 worth of timber.”
I “love” seeing the people who constantly claim to love freedom and the Constitution, doing everything the opposite of that.
Seems like many politicians are finally reaching the edge of sanity as it applies to the registry. Courts and legislatures are starting to not so much push back, but at least halt the expansion of laws regarding us in many states.
😡 SCOTUS!! WTF??!! 🤬
Damn it, THIS IS their job …. to hear and make rulings on the Constitutionality of ass backwards laws like this one!! 😬😖😱
This has long been a matter of legal precedent, sadly, in this country since the 1850s or before, if I recall correctly, as I’ve researched. They feel it’s a viable punishment that’s acceptable regardless of the debt paid.
Hmmm…so Trump can’t vote in Mississippi. Poetic…