{"id":2210685,"date":"2024-04-01T14:34:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T18:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/minnesota-supreme-court-hearing-case-to-restore-voting-rights-to-felons\/"},"modified":"2024-04-01T14:34:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T18:34:49","slug":"minnesota-supreme-court-hearing-case-to-restore-voting-rights-to-felons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/minnesota-supreme-court-hearing-case-to-restore-voting-rights-to-felons\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Supreme Court to consider restoring voting rights to felons"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fminnesota-supreme-court-hearing-case-to-restore-voting-rights-to-felons%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=2210685&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--><p>The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about restoring \u200bvoting rights to convicted felons upon their release from prison. Last year, a law was passed in Minnesota that restored \u200bvoting rights to 55,000 individuals \u200don probation,\u200c supervision,\u2063 and work release, \u200ccontingent \u2063on \u200bcompleting\u2064 probation. \u200bAnoka County\u200b Judge Thomas Lehmann\u2063 ruled against a lawsuit questioning the expansion of voting rights to\u2064 felons.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/minnesota\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Minnesota<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Supreme Court<\/a> is hearing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/minnesota\/news\/minnesota-supreme-court-hears-arguments-felon-voting-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>arguments<\/a> Monday regarding the restoration of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/voting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>voting rights<\/a> to convicted felons in the state upon their release from prison.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Minnesota passed a law restoring the right to vote to 55,000 Minnesotans on probation, supervision, and work release. Probation had to be completed in order to have one\u2019s voting rights restored. <\/p>\n<p>Anoka County Judge Thomas Lehmann <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ag.state.mn.us\/Office\/Communications\/2023\/docs\/VotingRights_OrderDismissingPetition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>ruled<\/a> against a lawsuit from the Minnesota Voters Alliance, which said the suit lacked proof that the state\u2019s legislature overstepped when it authorized expanding voting rights to felons. The alliance argued that felons could not vote \u201cunless restored to civil rights,\u201d meaning that felons would need to receive all of their civil rights back, not just some. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The law] conflicts with the Minnesota Constitution, which limits voting rights to those who have been convicted of felony crimes and who have not yet been restored to civil rights because it only attempts to restore the civil right to vote,\u201d said James Dickey, an attorney working on behalf of the Minnesota Voters Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>Lehmann did not agree with that claim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe major premise of this argument is fundamentally flawed,\u201d the judge wrote, citing a 2023 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that gave the legislature the power to decide whether voting rights should be restored. <\/p>\n<p>The alliance appealed the lower court\u2019s decision, and the appeal will be heard in the state\u2019s Supreme Court on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Proponents of the legislation say disenfranchising felons disproportionately harms people of color due to bias in the criminal justice system. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he wants this issue to be cleared up quickly. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got [an] election coming up in November, and there will be other primary elections coming up before that,\u201d Ellison <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2024\/04\/01\/voting-law-affecting-thousands-back-before-minnesota-supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>said<\/a>. \u201cAnd people need to know: Can I vote or can I not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellison said he believes the court will rule in favor of Minnesota lawmakers. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe justices have said that the legislature is fully empowered to set voting qualifications. They can set qualifications or they can change them,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cAnd they have, and the legislature is well within its rights to restore people to vote when they get out of confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the law stands, Minnesota would join 22 other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/felon-voting-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>states<\/a> that have similar measures allowing felons to regain their voting rights after incarceration. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case on restoring voting rights to felons after prison release. Last year, a law in Minnesota reinstated voting rights to 55,000 individuals on probation, supervision, and work release. Completion of probation is a requirement for regaining voting rights. Arguments on this matter are being heard on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":2210686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/minnesota-voting-1024x593.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2210685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/minnesota-voting-1024x593.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210685","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\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}