Florida: felon disfranchisement on SCOTUS conference list today
Legal Times reports: The Supreme Court is about to face its first major voting rights dispute since the arrival of new Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., who was criticized for opposing voting rights legislation as an aide in the Reagan Justice Department two dozen years ago.
At issue is a challenge to Florida’s 1968 law that permanently disenfranchises more than 800,000 convicted felons in the state. The case, Johnson v. Bush, will be one of dozens discussed at the Court's private conference Thursday to determine if they should be added to the docket for review.
Lawyers for a class of 613,000 felons who have completed their sentences claim that the Florida law disproportionately affects African-Americans, disenfranchising 10 percent of voting-age blacks in the state compared with 4 percent of the non-African-American population.
That contrast cannot be explained solely by higher arrest rates or higher participation in crimes by blacks, says Catherine Weiss, a lawyer for the Brennan Center for Justice who represents the class. Because of "bias in the criminal justice system" at every step, Weiss asserts, more African-Americans than whites are convicted of felonies, sentenced, and denied clemency. -- Supreme Court Asked to Hear Voting Rights Case
Disclosure: I was one of the counsel for the plaintiffs when this case was filed.