The Ninth Circus has lived up to its reputation yet again, holding "that the discriminatory impact of Washington's felon disenfranchisement is attributable to racial discrimination in Washington's criminal justice system; thus, that Washington's felon disenfranchisement law violates § 2 of the" Voting Rights Act. The dissent notes that the other circuits to address this issue have held unanimously to the contrary. The 2-1 opinion in Farrakhan v. Gregoire is here. The panel majority consists of two of the most notorious judges in the entire federal judiciary, Stephen Reinhardt and A. Wallace Tashima. Judge Margaret McKeown dissented.

If this misstep is not corrected by the Ninth en banc (which is notoriously parsimonious about correcting boneheaded panel decisions), it is a slam-dunk for Supreme Court review.