Thread: Virginia Supreme Court Blocks Voting Rights for Felons

Virginia Supreme Court Blocks Voting Rights for Felons

Gov. Terry McAuliffe wants to give the vote to those whose punishment has ended

ENLARGE
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, speaking to reporters in May. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS


By JON KAMP and
BRENT KENDALL
Updated July 22, 2016 8:35 p.m. ET

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday voided Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s effort to restore voting rights to 206,000 people with felony records.

Mr. McAuliffe issued an order in April to restore voting rights to convicted felons who have served their sentences while also completing parole and probation, and followed with similar orders in May and June. He cast felon-disenfranchisement laws as a troubling tool that whites had wielded to suppress votes among blacks.

The state’s high court in a 4-3 ruling struck down all the orders, ruling they violated Virginia’s constitution. The court’s majority said the “unprecedented scope, magnitude, and categorical nature” of the governor’s actions violated the legal limits on his clemency powers.

Mr. McAuliffe can use those clemency powers on a case-by-case basis to restore a felon’s civil rights, but “that does not mean he can effectively rewrite the general rule of law” in Virginia that says convicted felons are disqualified from voting, the court said.

Gov. McAuliffe responded to the ruling Friday by vowing to sign individual orders to restore voting rights for the more than 200,000 affected Virginians. He said it was a “disgrace” the state’s Republican leadership petitioned the court to stop the blanket rights restoration.

“The struggle for civil rights has always been a long and difficult one, but the fight goes on,” the governor said.

State Republicans had accused Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat, of playing politics in hopes of keeping Virginia in his party’s camp this fall. Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William Howell and state Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment argued in May, while taking the case to the state’s Supreme Court, that the state constitution only allows the governor to restore an individual felon’s voting rights.

Political observers expected the governor’s order would add more votes for Democrats than Republicans because those affected are disproportionately black, and black voters are widely acknowledged to more likely support Democrats. Virginia was a longtime Republican stronghold in presidential elections, but Barack Obama won the state twice with help from significant black-voter turnout.

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton’s decision to pick U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate shows how important the state looms as a battleground in November.

The ultimate impact the Virginia Supreme Court decision will have on the election remains to be seen. As of Monday, about 11,600 voters with restored rights had registered, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. The court’s ruling ordered the cancellation of those registrations.

Dissenting justices said the challengers didn’t have proper legal standing to contest the governor’s actions. Some of the dissenters also said that nothing in Virginia law limited the governor to restoring voting rights only on a voter-by-voter basis instead of doing so in a blanket fashion.

Voting rules for convicted felons vary widely from state to state, and Virginia is one of the most restrictive, according to groups that track the issue and advocate for looser restrictions. The rules range from two New England states that allow people to vote in prison to many others that restrict voting rights even after people have served their time in prison for felonies and are no longer on probation or parole, according to the Sentencing Project. The research and advocacy group supported Mr. McAuliffe’s order.

Four other Virginian voters joined the Republican legislative leaders in the petition to the state Supreme Court seeking to stop Mr. McAuliffe’s order. They also argued that his effort “flouts the separation of powers,” and they sought quick action from the court.

Messrs. Howell and Norment, both Republicans, called the court ruling “a major victory for the Constitution, the rule of law and the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/virginia...ons-1469227426

Demowacks only tool to gain or hold power is by fraud and cheating the system.

they can not win anything by honest virtue or morality

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Felons in Vermont and Maine, including those behind bars, have never been denied the right to vote since those states were founded more than 180 years ago, but neither state keeps data on the number of inmates who vote. . .

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-104343-6528r/

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