The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear Virginia’s bid to scuttle a lawsuit challenging an 1869 state constitutional provision that imposes a lifetime voting ban on convicted felons, one of the toughest restrictions in the United States.
The justices turned away an appeal by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, of a lower court’s ruling that let the lawsuit led by two would-be voters in the state with felony records proceed.
Virginia is one of just three U.S. states that imposes a lifetime ban on voting for all people with felony convictions unless the government restores an individual’s ability to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice public policy institute.
In 2023, Virginians Tati King and Toni Johnson, who were disenfranchised due to past felony convictions, and an advocacy group filed a class action lawsuit aiming to block state officials from enforcing the ban.
King was convicted in 2018 of felony drug possession, according to court papers. Johnson was convicted in 2021 of multiple felonies including drug possession and child endangerment. The plaintiffs are backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Their convictions triggered the disenfranchisement provision of Virginia’s constitution adopted in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War of 1861-1865 stating that no person who has been convicted of a felony “shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the governor or other appropriate authority.”
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Dillon B
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
