High court upholds felon voting hurdle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an appellate court’s decision to temporarily block hundreds of thousands of Florida felons from voting, making it unlikely that they will be allowed to cast a ballot in the state’s primary next month — and possibly in November’s presidential election.

The high court’s order came just four days before Monday’s deadline to register for the August primary, when voters will choose candidates for Congress, the state Legislature and local races.

The ruling lets stand a stay issued by the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing a ruling by a Tallahassee federal district court judge that ordered the state to give felons access to the ballot box under a voter-approved initiative known as Amendment 4.

As is usually customary, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasoning for denying a request from voting rights advocates to lift the stay.

However, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg

and Elena Kagan joined in a written dissent, saying the high court’s order “prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida’s primary election simply because they are poor.”

Writing for the dissenters, Sotomayor noted that a preliminary injunction had been in place for nearly a year and that a federal district court judge had found Florida’s “pay-to-vote scheme” unconstitutional after an eight-day trial in Tallahassee.

In his ruling in May, District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ordered the state to allow most Florida felons to vote, regardless of any outstanding legal debts.