Florida law denying voting rights of convicted felons upheld News
Florida law denying voting rights of convicted felons upheld

[JURIST] The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] ruled in favor of the State of Florida [official website] Tuesday in allowing the state to continue to require released convicted felons to apply to a state agency for restoration of their voting rights. Florida is one of 14 states which have laws allowing convicted felons to be denied voting rights for life. Jessie Allen, counsel for the individuals challenging the scheme, says that Florida is in violation of the US Voting Rights Act [official text] and that Florida's system disproportionately disenfranchises black citizens. Florida currently bans 600,000 individuals from voting based on a felony conviction, 167,000 of those individuals are African-American. Allen said that he will appeal the case to the US Supreme Court. Read the Eleventh Circuit opinion [PDF text]. AP has more.