Federal judge strikes down restrictions on Florida felon voting

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge on Sunday dismantled Florida’s restrictive felon voting rights law in a ruling that could open the door to hundreds of thousands of new voters being added to rolls just ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

“Whatever might be said of a rationally constructed system, this one falls short in substantial respects,” he said. The decision comes nearly a year after the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed the law that requires people with felony convictions to pay all outstanding court debts in order be eligible to vote. Legislators passed the bill after voters approved Amendment 4 to the state constitution, which aimed to end the state’s lifetime ban on voting for most ex-felons.

“[T]axation without representation led a group of patriots to throw lots of tea into a harbor when there were barely united colonies, let alone a United States,” Hinkle wrote. “Before Amendment 4, no state disenfranchised as large a portion of the electorate as Florida.“

Best Florida news I've seen for a long time! Now the real fight begins. FloridaGOP and TrumpWarRoom will be working overtime to limit voter registration, early voting, mail-in ballots and polling places from now through NOV 2.

Prison Gerrymandering, people. Imagine living In a district where 80 percent of the living breathing and currently free people can’t vote. Is that the kind of society we want to encourage? Us versus Them mentality amplified?

Go Biden Harris. Susan Rice Supreme Court Justice Val Demings SEC of State HR Clinton Attorney General Warren head of Senate Yang Sec of Commerce Booker Czar of Prison Reformation and Reparations be bold Joe! Dem brain trust vs Dimwit Trump's!

CovfefeUSA Paying court fines for your crimes is not 'pay to vote'. I wish leftists loved law-abiding citizens half as much as criminals.

Pay to vote... That's good. Payment can come in many different ways. We can pay fealty to vote, pay our health to vote, pay our time to vote. I hope this is extrapolated to the extent that citizens pay no-thing to participate in US democracy

Я переживаю

People have been saying once a felon serves his/her sentence, completes parole and pays their restitution, all rights should be restored. Now they change it to exempt any restitution. It will get appealed.

Yay!

Trump is going to be pisst... watch this gets overturned in Florida... felonyvoting

This won’t change much here. He’s lost a ton of voters in our state. It took far too long for him to protect his own voter base. Say what you will about Boomers, but know they will remember his lack of action at the polls.

Excellent!!! We must actively protect our democracy against the enemy of The People, the Republican Party.

Obama judge, any way to destroy America is democrats game plan.

Now we have to protect vote-by-mail. Link to application:

Felons forfeit certain civil rights upon conviction and imprisonment, one of which is the right to vote! Not voter 'suppression', just a fact of prison life! Jusdge is wrong on this one.

Hell yeah

Guess the gop is desperate for votes🤡🤡🤡

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