News

Federal Judge Throws Out Florida’s GOP Law Which Required Felons To Pay To Regain Voting Rights

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle threw out Florida’s restrictive felon voting rights law, declaring some parts of it unconstitutional.

The law regulates the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of felons, ruling that convicts asking to be re-enfranchised will have to pay court debts. Hinkle attacked the prerequisite, claiming that it would fail to foster judicial equality.

“This pay-to-vote system would be universally decried as unconstitutional but for one thing: each citizen at issue was convicted, at some point in the past, of a felony offense,” the judge said in his 125-page ruling. “A state may disenfranchise felons and impose conditions on their reenfranchisement. But the conditions must pass constitutional scrutiny.”

Asking felons to pay to be able to vote would discriminate against those who can’t afford it and fail to recognize their equality before the law. The costs that ex-convicts in Florida were supposed to bear included administrative and logistical expenses.

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!

A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.

“Whatever might be said of a rationally constructed system, this one falls short in substantial respects,” he said.

Paul Smith, vice president of the Campaign Legal Center, applauded the ruling and defined it a milestone for Florida’s justice system.

“Today’s decision is a landmark victory for hundreds of thousands of voters who want their voices to be heard,” Smith said. “This is a watershed moment in election law. States can no longer deny people access to the ballot box based on unpaid court costs and fees, nor can they condition rights restoration on restitution and fines that a person cannot afford to pay.”

Hinkle said that the ruling would be historic.

“[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 claimed. “Before Amendment 4, no state disenfranchised as large a portion of the electorate as Florida.“

Antonio Clibrizzi

Recent Posts

Trump Administration Invests Millions In Creating Mega Database Of Americans’ Private Data, Raising Fears Of Surveillance State

The Trump Administration is working with tech company Palantir to collect all unclassified information about…

18 hours ago

Democrats’ Approval Rating Plummets To Lowest Level In Decades, New Poll Finds

Democrats' approval rating has plummeted to 33 percent, according to a new poll from the…

18 hours ago

Trump Nominates Hooters-Loving MAGA Commentator Nick Adams As Ambassador To Malaysia

Nick Adams, an Australian-born conservative author and influencer, recently became President Donald Trump's pick for…

18 hours ago

After Cancellation Of ‘The Late Show,’ FCC Approves $8 Billion Skydance-Paramount Merger

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 23 permitted Skydance Media to move forward with…

20 hours ago

Trump’s Trip To Scotland Expected To Cost U.S. Taxpayers Nearly $10 Million

President Donald Trump's five-day golf trip to Scotland is expected to cost U.S. taxpayers $9.7…

20 hours ago

VIDEO: Zohran Mamdani & Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Share Hug Celebrating His Election Win

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DqVaz4a1Sjc After a monumental win in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary race, candidate…

2 days ago