A troubling story that has not gotten much attention this election season — or any recent one, for that matter — is why a certain group of roughly
5.3 million Americans won’t be allowed to vote. It isn’t because they’re
underage or non-citizens or mentally incompetent. It isn’t because they’re
unregistered or physically unable to get to the polls. It isn’t even because
they’re limping around with a chronic case of political apathy.
• Why Can’t Felons Vote?
Once they’ve served their time, punishing them further by taking away a basic right isn’t just unfair to them; it’s bad for us
• Sue Up or Shut Up!
A curious case may mean that debt collectors can’t threaten to sue their targets unless they really mean it
• Missing the Target
The disabled have lots of buying power and rely heavily on computers and the Internet. So why does it take a court case to get Target to make its website accessible to the blind?
• Why to Fear a Jury of Your Peers
Most people think that juries are more likely than judges to let defendants off the hook. The conventional wisdom, however, may be dead wrong
• Why the Wiretapping Ruling Is Vulnerable
Even opponents of President Bush’s surveillance program have to be dismayed by Judge Taylor’s thin legal reasoning
• When God is in the Lyrics
All the little girl wanted to do was sing “Awesome God” at an after-school talent show. Instead she became the focus of a federal lawsuit – with a strange coalition of legal backers
• If Daughters Decided
Even Supreme Court Justices ruling on major constitutional issues can be swayed by their families. Is that a bad thing?
• Does the Plame Lawsuit Have a Chance?
Analysis: Many legal experts think it won’t survive motions to dismiss based on claims of presidential immunity, but it may not be that simple
• Whatever Happened to Drug Testing?
The percentage of businesses that force their employees to pee in a cup is dropping – largely because it never made much sense in the first place
The reason they can’t vote is that they’re felons.
Oh, well. Felons, you say. They’re criminals, for Pete’s sake. Of course
they shouldn’t have the right to vote. But why is that, exactly?
In places like Mississippi, one of 12 states that permanently bar at least
some felons from voting, the reason typically involves the notion that
people have displayed very bad judgment by committing a felony, by
definition a serious crime. No argument there. But having done so, the
thinking goes, they have also proven themselves unfit to make one of life’s
most important decisions: choosing the nation’s leaders. As Roger Clegg,
president of the conservative advocacy group Center for Equal Opportunity,
neatly puts it, “If you aren’t willing to follow the law, you can’t claim
the right to make the law for everyone else.”
Officials in Mississippi are so taken with this slogan that they recently
piled 11 disqualifying felonies onto the 10 listed in their state’s
constitution. The Mississippi attorney general said they could do so without
actually amending the constitution, based on his creative reading of a 1998
federal court decision, but the American Civil Liberties Union disagreed. On Oct. 9, it filed a
lawsuit in Hinds County, Mississippi, challenging the 11 additions,
including shoplifting and timber larceny, as improperly adopted.
Notice that the ACLU didn’t challenge the 10 felonies already in the state
constitution. That’s because it is generally legal for states to
disenfranchise felons — the U.S. Constitution says so.
