Court upholds Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for certain felony convictions

A federal appeals court upheld Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for those with certain felony convictions on Thursday.

A majority of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, which disenfranchises those convicted of certain felony offenses, does not violate the U.S. Constitution.

Holding Section 241 unconstitutional would be “at odds with the Supreme Court’s and other courts’ decisions, would thwart the ability of the State’s legislature and citizens to determine their voting qualifications, and would require federal courts overtly to make legislative choices that, in our federal system, belong at the State level,” Judge Edith Jones wrote in the majority opinion.

Under Mississippi law, individuals convicted of one of 22 specific crimes, including bribery, theft, arson, and bigamy, lose their right to vote even after they have completed their sentences.

Last year, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit ruled that the state’s voting ban violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

But the full panel of the court, one of the nation’s most conservative appeals courts, later vacated the ruling.

In the ruling Thursday, the 13-6 majority said state lawmakers, not the judiciary, should decide whether to repeal the voting ban.

“Go and convince the State legislatures. Do the hard work of persuading your fellow citizens that the law should change,” the majority wrote, adding that the changes “must be achieved through public consensus effectuated in the legislative process, not by judicial fiat.”

The people who challenged the ban are “exploring next steps,” Jon Youngwood, co-chairman of the litigation department at the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm, told the Associated Press.

“We are heartened by the opinion of the six dissenting judges, which encapsulates the importance of this case,” Youngwood said in a statement. “As they write, voting is ‘the lifeblood of our democracy.’ Denying broad groups of our citizens, for life, the ability to have a role in determining who governs them diminishes our society and deprives individuals of the full rights of representative government.”