Members of Florida’s American Civil Liberties Union and NAACP on Tuesday appeared in federal appeals court in Atlanta, as they continue to challenge a Florida law they say infringes on voting rights of felons.
Amendment 4 restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony once they completed their sentence. People convicted of murder or a sexual offense were excluded.
The state legislature then passed SB 7066, which requires felons to pay all fines, court costs, and fees before being allowed to vote again. The ACLU and others have called that law a modern-day poll tax, which they say is illegal.
Arguing in court, ACLU attorney Julie Ebenstein said that it’s also a form of wealth discrimination; that a person’s access to the right to vote shouldn’t exclude those in poverty.
But the state argued that felons paying off their fines, was in fact, a part of their sentence — and that the sentence shouldn’t be considered complete until all financial debts were settled.
Rosemary McCoy is one of the plaintiffs in the case. She said it could take a lifetime for some felons to pay their financial debts.
‘’How long?’’ she said. ‘’How long? I need someone in here to tell me how long do you have to pay? We served our time. We made a mistake. This isn’t our livelihood. It shouldn’t be forever.”
McCoy said she served in the military and was willing to die for people’s right to vote but now the state of Florida is letting her down.
As of now, the 17 plaintiffs in the suit against the state would be able to vote in the March primary after a judge ruled in their favor last fall with a temporary injunction against SB 7066.
Attorneys for the ACLU said they were encouraged by the appeals court understanding the urgency of this case, but it would take weeks before a ruling is made.
Danielle Lang with the Campaign Legal Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center are also supporting the plaintiffs involved in the Amendment 4 suit..
Amendment 4 could eventually restore the voting rights for some 1.4 million Floridians in a move the civil liberties union called the largest expansion of voting rights in the country since the 26th Amendment, which went into effect in 1971 and lowered the voting age for federal elections to 18.
The federal appeals court building in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday.
Credit ROSS TERRELL
