Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Battle for felons' voting rights moves to paper arena in Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders in Florida are facing off with civil rights groups in the state Supreme Court.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The legal battle lines are solidifying over how Florida's restoration of felons' voting rights should be implemented.

A stack of 10 briefs were filed this week at the state Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments Nov. 6 on whether a new law was improperly written to disenfranchise the very people whose access to the ballot box was supposed to be restored by the will of the voters.


The dispute is one of the most important voting rights cases in years, legally and politically.

Florida is by far the biggest politically purple state in the country, and Democrats see significant potential benefit from adding as many as 1.4 million people with felony convictions to the rolls in time for the presidential election.

Promoters of ballot initiatives and advocates for prisoners' rights hailed last fall's referendum as a historic victory, because turnout was enormous and almost two-thirds of the state supported voting-rights restoration to felons "who have completed all terms of their sentence, including parole or probation," excluding people "convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense."

But the Republican-controlled Legislature voted this spring to limit the scope of the voter-mandated constitutional amendment, by requiring felons to make good on all "legal financial obligations" — mainly restitution, fines and court fees — before being eligible to vote.

The Republicans in charge in Tallahassee — Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Laurel Lee and the leaders of the House and Senate — all filed legal briefs sticking up for the new law, saying those payments are part of sentences and so the law is reflecting the language of the amendment.

Voting rights advocates and civil rights groups emphatically disagree and have filed a federal lawsuit to get the law struck down, arguing it amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax and violates a number of other constitutional civil rights. DeSantis has persuaded the Florida Supreme Court to weigh in on the somewhat narrower question of whether the law is within bounds in responding to the wording of the referendum.

"All of these aspects of Florida's sentencing scheme work in tandem to achieve Florida's sentencing purposes," the lawyers for the House wrote in their brief.

Costs and fees "are categorically not terms of sentence because they bear none of the hallmarks of sentencing," the Fair Elections Center said in its brief, because they are "non-punitive and simply serve to compensate the government for the costs of administering criminal justice."

The American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Brennan Center for Justicefiled a brief declaring that the state's history "of denying votes" to African-Americans reveals the GOP's bad faith in linking finances and voting rights.

"Historically, Florida disenfranchised a higher percentage of its adult citizens than any other state in the United States, more than 10 percent of the overall voting age population, and more than 21 percent of the African-American voting age population," the civil rights groups wrote.

Read More

Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Since the development of American mass media culture in the mid-20th century, numerous examples of entertainment media have tried to improve attitudes towards those who have traditionally held little power.

Getty Images, skynesher

Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Entertainment has been used for decades to improve attitudes toward other groups, both in the U.S. and abroad. One can think of movies like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, helping change attitudes toward Black Americans, or TV shows like Rosanne, helping humanize the White working class. Efforts internationally show that media can sometimes improve attitudes toward two groups concurrently.

Substantial research shows that Americans now hold overly negative views of those across the political spectrum. Let's now learn from decades of experience using entertainment to improve attitudes of those in other groups—but also from counter-examples that have reinforced stereotypes and whose techniques should generally be avoided—in order to improve attitudes toward fellow Americans across politics. This entertainment can allow Americans across the political spectrum to have more accurate views of each other while realizing that successful cross-ideological friendships and collaborations are possible.

Keep ReadingShow less
Close-up of military man holding hands with his therapist during counseling at mental health center.

PTSD Awareness Day is not only a time to advocate for veterans' mental health but also an opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the emotional responses triggered by political division.

Getty Images, Drazen Zigic

National PTSD Awareness Day: A Call to Action for Veterans and Civil Discourse

Each year on June 27, National PTSD Awareness Day shines a light on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), encouraging those affected to seek support. This observance was officially recognized by the U.S. Senate in 2010, following an initiative by Senator Kent Conrad to honor a North Dakota National Guard member who tragically took his own life after serving two tours in Iraq.

PTSD can develop after experiencing or witnessing traumatic events such as combat, assault, accidents, or natural disasters. Its symptoms—ranging from flashbacks and anxiety to mood swings and avoidance behaviors—can be deeply disruptive. PTSD Awareness Day is part of PTSD Awareness Month, which spans the entire month of June, promoting education, treatment options, and community support for those affected.

Keep ReadingShow less
International Students Cope With Growing Mental Health Issues
woman in brown sweater covering her face with her hand
Photo by Dev Asangbam on Unsplash

International Students Cope With Growing Mental Health Issues

Maeve Zhu, an undergraduate at the University of Washington, said moving to Seattle with hopes of studying computer science quickly became overwhelming.

"The hardest part for adjusting to life in the U.S. as an international undergrad was also my first year living overseas alone without my parents around me," said Maeve Zhu, an undergraduate at UW. "Trying to manage your time, your money, and your energy, all while being so lonely, the first year felt like living in a nightmare."

Keep ReadingShow less