Voting Rights for Felons Coming?

The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled 2-1 that a Washington State law barring felons from taking part in elections violates the federal Voting Rights Act, because of evidence showing that black and Latino men are overrepresented in the state's population of ex-felons.

In its decision, the court found that racial discrimination existed at every level of Washington State's legal system, from arrest, bail and prosecution, to sentencing. The state's practices, said the court, were resulting in discrimination that the Voting Rights Act was intended to prevent.

In Washington State, "minorities are more likely than whites to be searched, arrested, detained and ultimately prosecuted," wrote Judge A. Wallace Tashima in the court's majority opinion. The Voting Rights Act "demands that such racial discrimination not spread to the ballot box," he wrote.

The ruling marks the first time a federal appeals court has overturned a state law banning felons from voting. Every state except Maine and Vermont currently have such laws.

Should the ruling survive probable U.S. Supreme Court review, it would affect laws regulating felons' voting rights in Washington, and the eight other states under the 9th Circuit Court's jurisdiction, including; California, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon.