A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned a ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit related to Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, which permanently disenfranchises voters convicted of a range of crimes.
The full court 5th Circuit Panel Held 13-6 that Section 241 does not violate the U.S. Constitution.
“Holding Art. XII, Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, categorically unconstitutional… would impede the ability of the state legislature and citizens to determine their voting qualifications and would require federal courts to openly make legislative choices that, in our federal system, belong at the state level,” , wrote the majority.
“Do the hard work of persuading your fellow citizens that the law must change. The fundamental lesson of the Constitution and Richardson is that the changes sought by Plaintiffs here can and should be achieved through public consensus effected in the legislative process, not by judicial decree,” he added.
Mississippi law prohibits people convicted of bribery, theft, arson, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy from reinstating their voting rights.
The plaintiffs in the case argued that Section 241 violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“Denying broad groups of our citizens, for their entire lives, the ability to have a role in determining who governs them diminishes our society and deprives individuals of the full rights of representative government,” wrote Jon Youngwood, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, told The Hill in a statement. “We remain confident in this case and our clients remain committed to ensuring their right to vote is restored.”
Previously, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit ruled 2-1 that the section was “cruel and unusual” punishment, declaring it illegal.
“Mississippi is an exception among its sister states, bucking a clear national trend in our nation against permanent disenfranchisement,” the majority wrote in the three-judge panel’s ruling.
The panel added that by “forever separating ex-offenders from the body politic, Section 241 ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the time required by their culpability, and serves no protective function for society.” ”.
However, in Thursday’s full court opinion, the majority wrote, “Every district court that has had the opportunity to invalidate a felon’s disenfranchisement has rejected the opportunity.”
“We should not be the first to break new ground,” the panel added.
Justice James L. Dennis wrote the dissenting opinion, joined by five other justices appointed by Democratic presidents, criticizing the majority “for extending the Supreme Court’s Equal Protection doctrine” “beyond recognition.”
“Denying released offenders the right to vote takes away their full dignity as citizens, separates them from the rest of their community and reduces them to ‘other’ status,” he added.
In June, the Supreme Court, in an unsigned brief order, declined to hear a separate case over Section 241, in which the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the law is discriminatory against black Mississippians.
According to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit organization, Mississippi has one of the most rigorous disenfranchisement laws in the country, impacting about 11% of eligible voters, which is the highest proportion in the state.
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