Supreme Court won’t weigh Mississippi’s voting ban for felons

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not consider whether a Mississippi law banning people convicted of certain felonies from voting should be overturned.

The Jim Crow-era practice extends to people convicted of nonviolent crimes, including perjury and forgery. A group of disenfranchised Mississippians asked the justices to determine whether it amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment,” which is barred under federal law.

It’s the second time in recent years the high court has been asked to overturn the state’s voting ban for some felonies, though the cases used different legal arguments. The justices also rejected the 2023 attempt.

Attorneys for the disenfranchised voters called the state’s “harsh and unforgiving” practice, which is enshrined in its constitution, a “national outlier.”

“A citizen convicted in a Mississippi state court of a disenfranchising felony permanently loses the right to vote in the state, no matter how minor the underlying crime or how long the citizen may live after sentence completion,” they wrote in their petition to the court.

The practice was codified in the state’s 1890 constitution as part of early Jim Crow provisions attempting to limit the rights of Black residents. The disenfranchised plaintiffs’ attorneys said about 58 percent of those convicted of disenfranchising offenses between 1994 and 2017, who have completed their sentences, are Black.

The 2023 appeal, which the Supreme Court rejected, contended that those who authored Mississippi’s constitution showed racist intent when selecting the felonies that would cause people to lose the right to vote. A lower court found Mississippi remedied the underlying discrimination by later altering which crimes are disenfranchising.

In the latest appeal, the justices were asked to reverse the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel on the appeals court deemed the provision illegal, but the full court reinstated it.

Last term, a majority of the justices rejected arguments over cruel and unusual punishment in a separate case by finding that local laws prohibiting homeless people from sleeping on public property do not violate the 8th Amendment.

Topics

Supreme Court to weigh approval for 1st publicly funded religious charter school

The Supreme Court has agreed to take on a new culture war dispute: whether the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma
ABC News - 4d
Supreme Court to weigh approval for 1st publicly funded religious charter school

The Supreme Court will hear a case on whether the nation's first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma.
CBS News - 4d
Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld a law requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company to divest from the app, teeing up a ban set to take effect Sunday. The justices sided with the ...
The Hill - Jan. 17
TikTok ban: Here are the Supreme Court's options

All eyes are on the Supreme Court this week as the justices mull whether to step in and block a potential TikTok ban from going into effect Sunday. The court has signaled it will release its next ...
The Hill - Jan. 15
Shares in TikTok’s rivals gain as Supreme Court weighs U.S. ban for social-media app

The shares of publicly traded companies that compete with TikTok were gaining Friday as the video-sharing platform’s attorney faced tough questions from Supreme Court justices during oral arguments ...
MarketWatch - Jan. 11
Supreme Court hears appeal to TikTok ban

The Supreme Court on Friday heard arguments in a last-minute appeal from TikTok to halt a U.S. ban on the social media platform which could take effect later this month. Congress last year passed a ...
CBS News - Jan. 10
Legal analysis of the TikTok ban Supreme Court arguments

The Supreme Court justices appeared troubled during oral arguments about the apparent national security risks behind TikTok. CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford breaks down the court's ...
CBS News - Jan. 10
TikTok warns it could ‘go dark’ as Supreme Court weighs divest-or-ban law

Justices question ByteDance-owned platform’s free-speech argument as it tries to halt looming deadline
Financial Times - Jan. 10
Supreme Court to hear arguments on TikTok ban soon

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Friday challenging the federal TikTok ban. Right now, the ban is set to go into effect January 19 unless TikTok's parent company, China-based ByteDance, sells ...
CBS News - Jan. 10