November 9, 2004 in City

High court declines case on felons seeking to vote

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The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal from Washington state to stop minority felons from seeking the right to vote.

Justices left intact a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allows six current and former inmates to challenge as racially discriminatory a Washington state law stripping them of their right to vote. The inmates, represented by Gonzaga University Legal Assistance and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Education Fund, now can proceed to trial in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington.

“It means that we are able to now go back to federal district court and have the opportunity to pursue our case,” said Larry Weiser, director of the clinical law program at Gonzaga’s University Legal Assistance. “We can use evidence of bias in Washington state’s criminal justice system.”

The high court, however, also let stand a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the opposite direction. That lower court rejected an appeal from convicted New York felon Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, saying states should have the discretion to restrict voting rights unless Congress specifically states otherwise.

The Washington case has significant political implications, particularly given the close votes in the last two presidential elections. A victory for inmates at the Washington trial could stir lawsuits in the 47 other states — all except Maine and Vermont — that prohibit imprisoned felons from voting.

A similar lawsuit by 600,000 felons in Florida is pending in federal court there. That case, or another one, could give the Supreme Court another opportunity to clear up confusion.

The Washington inmates — four blacks, one American Indian and one Hispanic — filed the lawsuit in 1996, saying the state law violates the federal Voting Rights Act by denying them equal access to the polls. Minorities are particularly hurt because they are overrepresented in the prison community, they said.

Weiser said that while the state’s disenfranchisement law is neutral on its face, it has the effect of discriminating against minorities because of the disproportionately high rate of minority convictions in Washington. Though only 3 percent of Washington’s population is black, African Americans account for 23 percent of the state’s prison population.

The state of Washington countered that Congress never intended to protect convicted felons when it passed the Voting Rights Act. Also, if minorities are disproportionately hurt, that is not the fault of the state law but other factors such as unfair sentencing practices, the state’s legal filings say.

In its ruling last year, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit didn’t side with the inmates, but agreed that their claims of bias deserve a full airing in court.

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