Thread: What's Next for the NJ ACLU ?

Stay out of jail and you don't have to worry about it.

UB

http://www.courierpostonline.com - ACLU:Ease N.J.voting restrictions - Micros


ACLU: Ease N.J. voting restrictions

Friday, September 15, 2006


By TOM BALDWIN
Gannett State Bureau

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a Rutgers Law School group want New Jersey to grant voting rights to people on parole and probation, arguing racial discrimination weakens the ballot-box muscle of the state's minorities.

"Felon disenfranchisement has been referred to as the last vestige of slavery," said Frank Askin, a professor at the law school.

He noted that only two other states allow such voting -- both decidedly different from New Jersey in politics and demographics, Maine and Vermont.

"We believe this is a violation," said another Rutgers professor, Penny Venetis, noting New Jersey has some 100,000 parolees and probationers, a majority of whom are minorities.

The ACLU and the law school's Constitutional Litigation Clinic said they are petitioning an organization called the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

They said they want the rights commission to say that denying parolees and probationers the vote violates what the petitioners called universal human-rights principles.

The Washington, D.C.-based commission is sort of a conscience of the Americas on human-rights issues, studying situations, hearing complaints and issuing nonbinding opinions.

"The premise of a participatory democracy is simple: that citizens are able and encouraged to participate. The cornerstone of participating in our democracy is the right to vote," said Laleh Ispahani, senior policy counsel at the ACLU.

"Ignoring the racial implications of denying blocks of people the right to vote violates basic democracy," she said.

The groups said more than 60 percent of people on probation or parole in New Jersey are black or Hispanic.

"As a result," the groups said in a written statement, "the political power of the African-American and Latino communities in New Jersey is diluted because they are disproportionately excluded from voting."

The groups' petition said 19 other states and the District of Columbia have disenfranchisement policies that are less sweeping than New Jersey's; 19 have the same policies; and another 12 exclude a broader swath.

Executives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, and the Latino Leadership Alliance attended the press conference at Rutgers' Newark campus.

Askin and others said "nearly one-half of European nations" allow parolees and probationers to vote.

They said they want the Inter-American Commission to investigate, then declare the federal government, New Jersey and other states to be in violation of human-rights standards.

It was not clear what moral weight such a declaration would have. The commission came to be in 1959. No one there Thursday was available to comment on the New Jersey matter, and Askin acknowledged the commission cannot compel change.

A spokesman for Gov. Jon S. Corzine, Brendan Gilfillan, said the administration "will look into it."

Askin and others said "nearly one-half of European nations" allow parolees and probationers to vote.

They lost their right to vote when they commited a felony! YOU idiots (ACLU), snakes and vipers, as someone once said...will stoop to the lowest of the low! Slithering in and out until you can find a way to degrade our laws. Jerks!

This violation of civil rights is getting way out of hand.

If one commits a crime they shouldn't be able to vote. Ought to be part of their punishment. Voting is a privilege for legal law abiding citizens (or it should be anyway).

Where do these fruit loops come from? The ACLU does not want ANYONE to be accountable for their crimes! They want a completely lawless society! Anarchy and chaos! That is what they are working toward!