Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Supreme Court keeps Florida felon voting rights on hold

Florida felon voting

Ex-felon Clarence Singleton registered to vote in Fort Myers in January, before the legal fight intensified.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked several hundred thousand Florida felons from exercising their new voting rights in next month's primary.

The decision was the first from the high court in one of the past decade's most important, impassioned and complicated stories about expanding democracy.

The justices refused to quickly intervene in an appeals court decision that is preventing felons released from prison from registering and voting until they pay all fines, court costs and restitution. The ruling certainly sidelines them from the August primary and perhaps also the general election, when their votes might prove dispositive in another of Florida's razor-close presidential contests.


The court's three most liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan — dissented. Sotomayor, writing for the three, said that thousands of ex-felons are being blocked from voting in the primary "simply because they are poor."

"This court's inaction continues a trend of condoning disfranchisement," she wrote, deriding the rules at the center of the case as a "voter paywall."

The decision is the latest twist in a complex legal battle that goes back to the fall of 2018, when 65 percent of Florida voters decided to restore voting rights to almost all convicted felons who had completed their sentences, including probation and parole.

The following year, the GOP-majority Legislature passed and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law requiring felons to pay all their court-ordered financial obligations before registering. It was based on the rationale that those payments constitute completion of a criminal sentence.

That law was then challenged and federal Judge Robert Hinkle struck it down in May — ruling the law created a "pay-to-vote" system that was akin to the poll taxes barred by constitutional amendment during the civil rights era.

The state appealed, and this month the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from DeSantis to put the judge's decision on hold until the full court could hear arguments Aug. 18 — coincidentally or not, the same day as the primary.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision," said Paul Smith of the Campaign Legal Center, the voting rights advocacy group that asked the court to allow felons to vote right away.

An estimated 85,000 felons have registered during the period in the legal wrangling when that was allowed.

As many as 1.4 million ex-convicts were covered by the voters' decision, but about half of them appear to have some sort of financial obligations to the state — although how many of them and how much they owe, remains a mystery because of poor government record-keeping. That confusion is cited by voting rights groups as one of the reasons why the new law amounts to unconstitutional voter suppression.

But how many ultimately would register and vote is uncertain — and now will continue to be. The deadline for getting on the rolls in time for the primary is Monday.

Most states restore the franchise to felons after their sentences, along with time on parole or probation. About a dozen impose significantly restrictive additional requirements. Before the referendum, almost no felons in the state were ever allowed to cast a ballot again. It was one of the most restrictive rules in the country — so the statewide vote at the time amounted to one of the biggest single expansions of the franchise in modern American history.

States run by both parties have been moving steadily to expand the political rights of criminals who have done their time, agreeing with civil rights groups that such moves accelerate their return to productive roles in their communities. Many conservatives disagree, saying their debts to society should not be too easy to retire. They also concede, however, that the more felons vote the worse Republican candidates fare.

Since Florida's felon population, like that of almost all states, is disproportionately Black and Latino, a new burst of their votes would almost certainly propel Joe Biden to carrying the state's 29 electoral votes. President Trump won them last time by less than 1 point.

In several voting rights cases that have landed on its doorstep near election dates, the Supreme Court has declined to intervene — citing the precedent the court set 14 years ago, dubbed the Purcell principle: "Court orders affecting elections, especially conflicting orders, can themselves result in voter confusion and consequent incentive to remain away from the polls," the court ruled then. "As an election draws closer, that risk will increase."

The state of Florida argued that the trial judge's decision had run afoul of that principle.

Read More

Understanding the Debate on Health Secretary Kennedy’s Vaccine Panelists

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Understanding the Debate on Health Secretary Kennedy’s Vaccine Panelists

Summary

On June 9, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Secretary Kennedy claimed the move was necessary to eliminate “conflicts of interest” and restore public trust in vaccines, which he argued had been compromised by the influence of pharmaceutical companies. However, this decision strays from precedent and has drawn significant criticism from medical experts and public health officials across the country. Some argue that this shake-up undermines scientific independence and opens the door to politicized decision-making in vaccine policy.

Background: What Is ACIP?

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a federal advisory group that helps guide national vaccine policy. Established in 1964, it has over 60 years of credibility as an evidence-based body of medical and scientific experts. ACIP makes official recommendations on vaccine schedules for both children and adults, determining which immunizations are required for school entry, covered by health insurance, and prioritized in public health programs. The committee is composed of specialists in immunology, epidemiology, pediatrics, infectious disease, and public health, all of whom are vetted for scientific rigor and ethical standards. ACIP’s guidance holds national weight, shaping both public perception of vaccines and the policies of institutions like schools, hospitals, and insurers.

Keep ReadingShow less
MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border
Way into future, RPA Airmen participate in Red Flag 16-2 > Creech ...

MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border

FT HUACHUCA, Ariz. - Inside a windowless and dark shipping container turned into a high-tech surveillance command center, two analysts peered at their own set of six screens that showed data coming in from an MQ-9 Predator B drone. Both were looking for two adults and a child who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and had fled when a Border Patrol agent approached in a truck.

Inside the drone hangar on the other side of the Fort Huachuca base sat another former shipping container, this one occupied by a drone pilot and a camera operator who pivoted the drone's camera to scan nine square miles of shrubs and saguaros for the migrants. Like the command center, the onetime shipping container was dark, lit only by the glow of the computer screens.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Trump 2020 flag outside of a home.

As Trump’s second presidency unfolds, rural America—the foundation of his 2024 election win—is feeling the sting. From collapsing export markets to cuts in healthcare and infrastructure, those very voters are losing faith.

Getty Images, ablokhin

Trump’s 2.0 Actions Have Harmed Rural America Who Voted for Him

Daryl Royal, the 20-year University of Texas football coach, once said, “You've gotta dance with them that brung ya.” The modern adaptation of that quote is “you gotta dance with the one who brought you to the party.” The expression means you should remain loyal to the people or things that helped you succeed.

Sixty-three percent of America’s 3,144 counties are predominantly rural, and Donald Trump won 93 percent of those counties in 2024. Analyses show that rural counties have become increasingly solid Republican, and Trump’s margin of victory within rural America reached a new high in the 2024 election.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hands Off Our Elections: States and Congress, Not Presidents, Set the Rules
white concrete dome museum

Hands Off Our Elections: States and Congress, Not Presidents, Set the Rules

Trust in elections is fragile – and once lost, it is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild. While Democrats and Republicans disagree on many election policies, there is broad bipartisan agreement on one point: executive branch interference in elections undermines the constitutional authority of states and Congress to determine how elections are run.

Recent executive branch actions threaten to upend this constitutional balance, and Congress must act before it’s too late. To be clear – this is not just about the current president. Keeping the executive branch out of elections is a crucial safeguard against power grabs by any future president, Democrat or Republican.

Keep ReadingShow less