Ballots for felons?

The reaction to a decision overturning Washington state's ban on voting by inmates. The judges say the system is "racially discriminatory."

A federal appeals court last week overturned Washington state's ban on voting by convicted felons, citing evidence that the state's legal system is "racially discriminatory." Outraged opponents promise to appeal the decision—by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco—to the Supreme Court. If the ruling survives, it could force other states to let prisoners and parolees vote if their judicial systems are found to unfairly target African-Americans and other minorities. Every state but Maine and Vermont has some form of law against voting by felons. Should criminals have the right to vote?

Inmates threw away their right to vote: Barring prisoners from voting isn't racism, says Roger Clegg in National Review. It’s an acknowledgement that there are "certain minimum, objective standards" required of the people with whom we entrust "the serious enterprise of self-government." Children, non-citizens, and the institutionalized mentally ill can't vote. So there's nothing wrong with telling people who can't be bothered to obey the law that they won't "be allowed to make the law for everyone else."

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