Amendment 4 restrictions spoil ex-felons’ redemption

Over the last few years, teams of law students from several schools as well as volunteers from a variety of organizations staffed phone banks or traveled to Alabama to help educate people with felony convictions, who had served their terms, about their restored voting rights and to help them register to vote. These volunteers reported that this was one of their most gratifying experiences as students or lawyers.

Many of the people they contacted were surprised that their fellow citizens took the effort to reengage them in the political process. But more than that, many of these individuals expressed joy that their right to vote represented to them the full restoration of their citizenship.

Perhaps some of these volunteers remembered the line from Hebrews: “Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.”

In 2018, the citizens of Florida voted to amend their constitution and return the right to vote to men and women who had been convicted of felonies after serving their sentences (whether of imprisonment, parole, or probation).

Politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are trying to water down Amendment 4 by making it more difficult for poor people to restore their voting rights, based on perceptions of how this may benefit his party politically. That is how politicians think.

The people of Florida, however, have shown solidarity with their fellow citizens by rejecting this narrow-minded thinking. Though the state is close to evenly split between Republican and Democraticleaning voters, two thirds of the electorate voted for the amendment. It was an overwhelming and bipartisan embrace. There is no good evidence that suggests the voters skew in favor of one party or the other.

Floridians are may know the parable of the return of the prodigal son, who said to his father: “‘I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. And the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Similarly, much of the Amendment 4 campaign centered on the principle of second chances and redemption.

The Republican state legislature and Republican governor had other ideas. Gov. DeSantis called the Florida voters’ compassion and commitment to democratic values “a mistake.”

Does he think that two-thirds of his fellow citizens got it wrong and that politicians know better? Rather than embracing the full return to citizenship of those reentering our communities, the Florida government responded to Amendment 4 by cooking up a list of restrictive hurdles to keep returning citizens from voting. If they owed restitution, fines or court costs, these must first be fully paid regardless of ability to pay.

To be clear, no one is arguing that these debts should not be paid, just like one’s credit card must be paid. However, in America inability to pay a debt does not impair your rights of citizenship or your right to vote.

A federal court in Tallahassee has now ruled that these conditions violate the federal Equal Protection Clause — at least applying to those with a genuine inability to pay these debts. For now, the ruling is only temporary and the court’s specific order extends only to the individual plaintiffs who brought the case. It should be made permanent and extend to everyone that face financial hardship.

But regardless, when they return to the polls, the Floridians should remember that their elected officials sought to defeat a constitutional reform that came without partisan regard from the hearts of the people. If our representatives will not stick up for our democracy — or just plain decency — the voters must elect officials who will.