Full Federal Appellate Court Agrees to Hear Florida Case on ‘Modern Day Poll Tax’ – By Aaron Keller (Law and Crime) / July 1 2020
A full panel of federal judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Atlanta, has agreed to hear a case on the alleged “modern day poll tax” in the State of Florida. Such so-called en banc hearings are rare; this hearing could result in ex-felons being ultimately denied the ability to vote in the 2020 election.
Three judges sitting on the Eleventh Circuit (two were circuit judges; one was a district court judge who filled in for the case) agreed in a 78-page opinion issued Feb. 19 that Florida officials could not ban a group of seventeen ex-felons from voting. The ruling sparked hope that it would be applied broadly to include all ex-felons affected by two Florida laws which in concert required them to pay money before choosing candidates for elected offices.
The litigation followed Florida’s 2018 Amendment 4, which—as the Eleventh Circuit explained—”automatically restored voting rights to ex-felons who had completed all of the terms of their sentences.” Amendment 4 resulted, the circuit court believed, in “as many as 1.4 million felons” being “eligible for reenfranchisement” as voters. The Amendment was considered the largest re-enfranchisement of voters since the 19th Amendment of 1920, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or the 26th Amendment of 1971, the court noted.
The problem was a Florida Senate bill which implemented Amendment 4’s provisions The bill required ex-felons to pay fines, fees, and restitution, collectively known as “legal financial obligations” or “LFOs,” before reenfranchisement could legally occur.
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