5th Circuit Outlaws Lifetime Ban On Felons Voting

[bobabode]

"Mississippi’s lifetime ban on certain felons voting constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Eighth Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, potentially paving the way for tens of thousands to regain their voting rights.

A panel of 5th Circuit judges ruled 2-1 in favor of the plaintiffs, writing that the section at issue in Mississippi’s state constitution “ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the term their culpability requires, and serves no protective function to society.”

“In so excluding former offenders from a basic aspect of democratic life, often long after their sentences have been served, Mississippi inflicts a disproportionate punishment that has been rejected by a majority of the states and, in the independent judgment of this court informed by our precedents, is at odds with society’s evolving standards of decency,” wrote judge James L. Dennis, joined by judge Carolyn Dineen King, both of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents." WP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...rights-appeal/

Good news.

[Mark B]

Justice!