SCOTUS can’t override a Constitutional Amendment.
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If I were arguing for this requirement in front of this SCOTUS, I would say it has nothing to do with poll taxes, and is actually in line with the will of the voters by requiring ex-felons to “complete all terms of their sentence.” It wouldn’t be hard to convince the Demon 5 that a convict’s debt to society includes financial debt and that the term is not complete until that debt is paid.
You and I know that this is essentially a poll tax, but by narrowing the scope of the argument, a lawyer could give SCOTUS room to make an end run around the amendment.
And no, I have no faith in SCOTUS now that Trump and McConnell have corrupted it. I most likely will be dead before this wrong gets righted.
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Tom Steyer could really put his money to good use here instead of his TV rants.
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This will be DOA in the courts. Stupid fucking Republicans wasting everyone’s time. The sooner Florida is underwater the better.
Why did it remind me of what happened after the abolishment of Russian serfdom?
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Perhaps that argument would succeed, but perhaps not. I can see how it would apply to fines, though I would argue that, having given felons who have completed their prison sentence the right to vote, a state can’t turn around and condition that right on paying outstanding fines - any more than it can condition the right to vote on paying the fines for outstanding traffic tickets.
More to the point though - conditioning the right to vote on fees, court costs, and restitution, particularly if they aren’t part of the original sentence, is clearly a poll tax. I don’t see how you get around that.
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Florida voters: This historic vote restores the franchise for those who have served their time and paid their debt to society.
Florida Legislature: Hold my beer.
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With this Supreme Court, poll taxes are legal again.
I understand your reasoning and I agree with it, but like I said, I have no faith in the current SCOTUS. They are champing at the bit to roll back every progressive law they can. If they rule in favor of the citizenship question, they will show themselves to be no longer bound by the rules and norms that have tempered the court over the past half century or so. Once unbound, and with no greater court in the land to overrule them, there’s really nothing to stop them from doing whatever they please. Not even the ballot box can reign them in, unless a fully Dem Legislature and Executive can add justices to the court.
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FIFY
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And clearly it would also be illegal (or unconstitutional?) to impose ex post facto a get-out-of-jail fee on previously sentenced felons. So, 2 strikes against the Florida legislature. 3rd strike and they should all go to jail.
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That’s a brilliant idea.
Some poor bastard who served time for marijuana is barred from voting, but bankers who stole houses and destroyed families’ life savings are free to vote and re-elect the very people who helped destroy our economy. Trump’s illegal-immigrant wife gets to vote, but she’ll probably vote for a Democrat in 2020.
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in my best Elvis voice…
TY, TYVM
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The Republican Florida State AG will argue before the Supreme Court that it is NOT a “Poll Tax”, rather, it is a “Societal Reinstatement Fee”, which will result in a 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of the law.
Within 3 months of this decision at least 25 other (Republican) states will pass carbon-copies of the law.
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…and that deadbeat dad may even get a seat on the Federal Reserve Board…
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You misspelled “may run for office.”
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When someone posts the GoFundMe for this, I am in. What a despicable road the GOP is on. F them all.
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This ^^^^^.
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ok,i live in FLORIDA…the amendment passed by a large margin…so, I ask, if the people who fulfilled their sentence, are not allowed to vote unless they pay a fee…are they still required to pay taxes? isn’t this ‘taxation without representation’???
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