The Federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguably the most Neanderthal and Right Wing circuit in the nation, has ruled that Mississippi's felon disenfranchisement law is unconstitutional.
I am stunned and pleased:
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.”
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If it holds, the decision would affect about 30,000 Mississippians who have served sentences for felonies covered by the disenfranchisement clause, the plaintiffs estimate.
The clause dates back to Mississippi’s 1890 constitution, which the state “adopted in reaction to the expansion of Black suffrage and other political rights during Reconstruction,” the ruling notes. The provision applied to felons convicted of crimes that included murder, bribery, theft and perjury, among other crimes.
The plaintiffs succeeded using an uncommon legal strategy for voting rights cases, focusing on the Eighth Amendment and its prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
The primary purpose of felon disenfranchisement is primarily, if not entirely, to keep black people from voting.
It is well past time for the practice to be ended.
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