{"id":2026993,"date":"2023-09-09T19:54:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T23:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-strikes-down-felony-voting-ban-as-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-in-unprecedented-ruling\/"},"modified":"2023-09-09T19:57:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T23:57:46","slug":"federal-court-strikes-down-felony-voting-ban-as-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-in-unprecedented-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-strikes-down-felony-voting-ban-as-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-in-unprecedented-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal court deems felony voting ban &#8216;cruel and unusual punishment&#8217; in landmark ruling."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-court-strikes-down-felony-voting-ban-as-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-in-unprecedented-ruling%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2026993&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Mississippi&#8217;s Permanent Voting Ban \u2062for Felons<\/h2>\n<p>A federal appeals court has made a groundbreaking ruling against Mississippi&#8217;s permanent voting ban \u2062for certain felons, going\u2064 against\u200d Supreme Court precedent. The Fifth Circuit Court of \u2064Appeals declared that the Mississippi Constitution&#8217;s lifetime\u200d voting ban for felons convicted of certain crimes violates \u2062the\u200c Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The Mississippi Constitution currently revokes an individual&#8217;s \u200cright to vote permanently\u2062 if they are convicted\u2063 of crimes \u200csuch as arson,\u2064 bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, forgery, murder, perjury, rape, or theft. \u2064Additionally, the Mississippi\u2064 attorney general\u200d has the authority to determine if other crimes fall under these \u2063categories, including armed\u200d robbery\u2063 and timber larceny.<\/p>\n<p>The case, known as <i>Hopkins v. Hosemann<\/i>, was initiated by\u2064 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the law firm Simpson Thatcher &#038; Bartlett in \u200c2018. The court&#8217;s ruling was\u200c delivered \u2063by Judge James Dennis, who argued\u2062 that Mississippi&#8217;s lifetime\u200b ban on \u2063certain felons goes against the progress made by other states \u2063that \u200bhave \u200cabandoned permanent felon voting bans\u2064 over the years.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;Mississippi&#8217;s permanent\u2063 ban serves no legitimate penological \u200dpurpose and thwarts proper rehabilitation,&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>stated Judge Dennis. He further emphasized that the ban &#8220;severs former offenders from the body politic \u200bforever,&#8221; preventing their full reintegration into society and serving as a &#8220;cruel\u2063 and unusual punishment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>However, Judge Edith Jones dissented, arguing that the majority ruling contradicted the Constitution and reflected judicial activism. She cited Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment, which allows states to \u2062deprive \u2063citizens of the right \u200dto vote for participation in rebellion or other crimes. Jones contended that this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-strikes-down-felony-voting-ban-as-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-in-unprecedented-ruling\/\" title=\"Federal court deems felony voting ban 'cruel and unusual punishment' in landmark ruling.\">provision expressly permits lifetime voting bans<\/a> for felons.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;If a person breaks \u2062a law, he has forfeited \u200cthe right to participate in making them,&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>stated Judge Jones, highlighting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/who-else-do-you-want-to-loot-sen-cruz-destroys-progressive-leader-over-elon-musk-attacks\/\" title=\"\u2018Who Else Do You Want To Loot?\u2019: Sen. Cruz Destroys Progressive Leader Over Elon Musk Attacks\">long-standing tradition<\/a> of\u200d voting bans for felons.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jones also referenced the \u2064Supreme Court precedent set in the 1974 case \u200b <i>Richardson\u2063 v. Ramirez<\/i>, which determined \u2062that felon voting bans do not violate the Equal Protection Clause. The court ruled \u2063that the question of handling voting rights for felons should be addressed through the legislative\u200c process rather \u2064than \u2064judicial intervention.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>&#8220;Go and convince the state legislatures. Do the hard work of persuading your \u200dfellow citizens that the law should \u2062change,&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>urged Judge \u2064Jones. She \u2063criticized the court for bypassing \u2063the legislative process and changing the law\u2062 through the Due Process Clause\u200c instead of the Equal Protection\u2063 Clause.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The ruling came \u200din\u2064 response to a lawsuit filed by five felons seeking the right to vote: Dennis Hopkins, Herman Parker,\u2064 Walter Wayne Kuhn\u2062 Jr, Bryon Demond Coleman, Jon O&#8217;Neal, and \u200dEarnest Willhite. \u2063Each of them had \u200ccompleted their sentences for \u2063crimes such as grand larceny, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/soros-backed-philadelphia-da-considered-helping-non-citizens-accused-of-rape-murder-avoid-deportation-records-show\/\" title=\"Soros-Backed Philadelphia DA Considered Helping Non-Citizens Accused Of Rape, Murder Avoid Deportation, Records Show\">receiving stolen property<\/a>, and second-degree arson.<\/p>\n<p>While \u2064Mississippi does offer a slim\u200c chance for voting rights restoration through a &#8220;suffrage bill&#8221; passed by the\u2062 legislature, this ruling \u2063marks a significant step towards challenging the state&#8217;s permanent voting\u2062 ban for felons.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the\u200d ruling, Mississippi has requested an en banc\u200b rehearing, which \u200bwould involve all justices of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\">CLICK HERE TO GET\u2064 THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal appeals court recently overturned Mississippi&#8217;s lifetime voting ban for specific felons, contradicting the Supreme Court&#8217;s previous ruling. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stated that the ban, outlined in the Mississippi Constitution, violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":2026994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2026993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2026993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2026994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2026993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2026993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2026993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}