Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Split Ninth Circuit panel finds Washington's disenfranchisement of felons violates the VRA

By Douglas A. Berman

In a ruling that surely will not be the last word on the topic, a split Ninth Circuit panel today in Farrakhan v. Gregoire, No. 06-35669 (9th Cir. Jan. 5, 2010) (available here), has decided that Washington's felon disenfranchisement law violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Here is how the majority opinion starts: Plaintiffs, minority citizens of Washington state who have lost their right to vote pursuant to the state?s felon disenfranchisement provision, filed this action in 1996 challenging that provision on the ground that, due to racial discrimination in the state?s criminal justice system, the automatic disenfranchisement of felons results in the denial of the right to voteon account of race, in violation of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act (?VRA?), 42 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 05, 2010 (boomark / email).