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Justice O'Connor on Felon Disenfranchisement

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The Supreme Court has not rendered an opinion on felon disenfranchisement for a very long time, but Justice O'Connor has.

Yesterday, a panel of the Ninth Circuit issued this opinion in the Arizona case of Harvey v. Brewer. The panel was Justice O'Connor, sitting by designation, Chief Judge Kozinski, and Judge Ikuta. Justice O'Connor's opinion dispatches a number of arguments against Arizona's law. The most creative was a claim that the requirement that a felon pay all his fines before regaining the right to vote violates the Twenty-Fourth Amendment. The what? Answer after the jump.

The Voting Rights Act, which has been the main issue in recent felon disenfranchisement cases, is not directly at issue but is discussed in terms of its relation to the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment expressly authorizing felon disenfranchisement.
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"The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

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We know that most convicts would vote for the Democrat Party. So this movement is a thinly disguised attempt to increase Democrat votes.

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