The monumental day comes despite two legal challenges that attempted to undercut it. Last Thursday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals struck down a legal challenge by Mille Lacs County District Court Judge Matthew Quinn against Restore the Vote. Quinn had barred at least six defendants from voting as part of their sentences and argued the voting law was unconstitutional.
In an order, Chief Judge Susan Segal wrote that Quinn had no authority to declare the law unconstitutional. And Segal said Quinn’s actions were “unauthorized by law.”
Another lawsuit by conservative voter’s group Minnesota Voters Alliance is pending in Anoka County before District Court Judge Thomas Lehmann. A first hearing was held on Oct. 30, but Lehmann has not issued a ruling on the case yet.
Manslaughter? What about companies that manufacture a faulty product that results in premature death? Does their board lose the right to vote? Can the corporation be barred from lobbying congress?
What about Phillip Morris, manufacturer of cigarettes? Does everyone who works there lose the right to vote?
Slaves had no voting rights, and removing the voting rights of people convicted of a crime was invented under Jim Crow, and was used to disenfranchise black people from political power in the antebellum south. It is still used for that purpose throughout the United States to this day.
Permitting any crime to remove a person’s right to vote will result in black and indigenous people of color being targeted for and wrongfully convicted of that crime.
But whatabout
Listen fella, I made a pretty concise explanation of my take of it. You can do the same without trying to make me feel like shit because of the racist history of America? Thanks.