Some institutionalized racism is just too important for the courts to let it go.
Via Watching Justice.
On April 12, 2005, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Florida's 137 year old ban on voting for those people who have served their time after felony convictions. Overturning an earlier decision finding that the Florida policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Federal Voting Rights Act, the full panel of the 11th Circuit denied all the claims on behalf of more than 600,000 disenfranchised Florida voters. More than one in ten African Americans in Florida today are permanently barred from voting; what the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, which brought the case, calls a "civil rights crisis" in Florida.
The Brennan Center indicates it will appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Now is the time for the Department of Justice to express its views that the civil war era ban on felons voting violates the equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act.
Update: Historical background previously posted on HungryBlues here.
Also see the Prisoners of the Census state impacts page on Florida.
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