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| Justices Refuse to Review Inmate Voting Rights |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 11/15/2004 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 declined to decide a legal dispute over whether states can prevent convicted felons from voting. Acting after last week's elections, the justices refused to consider an appeal in cases from Washington and New York State on the reach of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits voter disqualification based on race. Every state in the nation except Maine and Vermont deny the right to vote to convicted felons in prison. Most of the laws also deny the right to vote to felons on parole or probation, and 14 states ban felons from voting even after they have served their sentences, civil rights experts said. Nearly 5 million felons who have been released from prison are legally disenfranchised, the experts estimated. Some 1.4 million black men, or 13 percent of the total, remain permanently disenfranchised. |
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