{"id":17814,"date":"2020-01-24T15:24:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T20:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/?p=17814"},"modified":"2020-05-28T12:31:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T16:31:40","slug":"florida-supreme-court-rules-felons-must-pay-fines-before-regaining-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/staging\/8357\/florida-supreme-court-rules-felons-must-pay-fines-before-regaining-voting-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Supreme Court Rules Felons Must Pay Fines Before Regaining Voting Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than a year after Florida restored voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their sentence, the Florida Supreme Court sided with legislation that says they must pay all court-ordered fees before that can happen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court\u2019s decision on Jan. 16 could affect the voting rights of nearly 1.4 million people with felony backgrounds living in Florida, according to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Governor Ron DeSantis praised the court\u2019s response via Twitter the same day, arguing that fees should be paid to the felon\u2019s victims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cVoting is a privilege that should not be taken lightly, and I am obligated to faithfully implement Amendment 4 as it is defined,\u201d DeSantis tweeted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amendment 4 passed as a ballot initiative in 2018. It restored the voting rights to people with felony convictions that have completed their sentences, except for citizens charged with a murder or sexual offense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response, Florida passed two bills last July<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SB 7086 and HB 7089<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that state voting rights can\u2019t be restored until citizens pay all court-ordered fees, fines and restitutions related to their sentence. The bills contain language that stipulates felons can\u2019t receive their voting rights until completing \u201call terms of a sentence.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court to interpret the clause to see whether it extends to any financial obligations, according to court documents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe should all be concerned by Governor Ron DeSantis\u2019 efforts to manipulate and engineer a result that attempts to eliminate the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of Floridians,\u201d said the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida in a statement on Jan. 16.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Desmond Meade, a Miami Dade College alum who championed Amendment 4 in 2018, said in a statement the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition will continue to help people with felony convictions pay their financial obligations. Meade earned his associate&#8217;s degree from MDC and a law degree from Florida International University while fighting through homelessness following a drug conviction over a decade ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have remained consistent about what completion of sentence means, and because we have always kept people at the center of our work,\u201d Meade said in a statement to the FRRC on Jan. 16. \u201cWe diligently worked with the Florida legislature, local judicial circuits and our fellow citizens to develop pathways for people with financial obligations to complete their sentence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several organizations like the ACLU, Campaign Legal Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center have retaliated with a federal lawsuit against SB 7086. They claim it is unconstitutional because it hinders lower-income citizens, who often can\u2019t afford the fees, from voting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ACLU said the court ruling will not affect the ongoing suit because they did not \u201cdetermine when all terms of sentence are complete.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Florida Legislature cannot ignore U.S. constitutional protections when interpreting when a sentence is completed for the purpose of restoring voting rights,\u201d said the ACLU in a statement. \u201cIf it does, we are confident the federal courts will correct it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than a year after Florida restored voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their sentence, the Florida Supreme Court sided with legislation that says they must pay all court-ordered fees before that can happen.\u00a0\u00a0 The court\u2019s decision on Jan. 16 could affect the voting rights of nearly 1.4 million people with felony backgrounds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":523,"featured_media":17815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1115,1517,1518,1519],"class_list":{"0":"post-17814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-voting-rights","9":"tag-amendment-4","10":"tag-florida-supreme-court","11":"tag-court"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court Rules Felons Must Pay Fines Before Regaining Voting Rights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amendment 4 hit a roadblock on Jan. 16 when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that felons can\u2019t regain 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