{"id":743,"date":"2011-03-04T11:56:54","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T16:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=743"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:58:05","slug":"flordia-ag-thinks-civil-rights-must-be-earned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/03\/04\/flordia-ag-thinks-civil-rights-must-be-earned\/","title":{"rendered":"Flordia AG thinks civil rights must be earned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smita Ghosh\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

One can imagine, in Florida, applying for admission to UF or to get into some of the\u00a0State\u2019s other\u00a0hot spots<\/a>. But \u201capplying\u201d for one\u2019s civil rights\u00a0is harder to envision.\u00a0 Indeed, it\u2019s hard to imagine the anxiety arising from an application process in which much more is at stake than your ability to \u201cgo gator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pam Bondi, Florida\u2019s newly elected Attorney General, announced in late February\u00a0a plan\u00a0<\/a>that would require felons who have\u00a0finished their sentences to \u201capply\u201d for the\u00a0restoration of their civil rights \u2014 including their right\u00a0to vote, hold public office, apply for occupational licenses and sit on juries.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>The application process would likely be an extension of the current procedure used to evaluate the rights of violent and sexual offenders, meaning that every individual would need to petition the Board of Clemency for their rights.\u00a0 A related civil rights group\u00a0notes that\u00a0<\/a>the process can be arduous, and should require submission a portfolio containing letters of recommendation and \u201cadditional items such as press clippings from a community event in which you were involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0protest from<\/a>\u00a0civil rights groups, Bondi\u00a0would\u00a0\u201dnot budge\u201d from her\u00a0position. In an earlier interview, Bondi\u00a0explained that<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe restoration of civil rights for any felon must be earned, it is not an entitlement.\u201d\u00a0 Currently, only two states, Kentucky and Virginia,\u00a0require individuals who were convicted of a felony to petition the government for the restoration of their civil rights.\u00a0 In most states, the rights of all or at least some types of offenders are automatically restored, sometimes after a waiting period.\u00a0 In Maine and Vermont, individuals are not disenfranchised at all after conviction.\u00a0\u00a0More here.<\/a><\/p>\n

As of 2007, the state automatically restores the rights of felons convicted of nonviolent crimes after their sentence, while certain types of violent, \u201chabitual\u201d or sexual offenders must appear before the Clemency Board.\u00a0 (See the\u00a0current rules<\/a>.) In 2004, when the civil rights restoration process was slightly more restrictive than it is now, but not nearly as restrictive as it would be in Bondi\u2019s proposal,\u00a0close to 950,000<\/a>people in Florida were denied the right to vote due to past felony convictions.<\/p>\n

Restrictions on the right to vote seem particularly disruptive in Florida, where several hundred votes made a huge impact on the 2000 election.\u00a0 Additionally, this disruption occurs on racial lines, due to unequal administration of criminal penalties.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2001, 5% of the state\u2019s voting age population and 10% of its African-American citizens were disenfranchised.\u00a0 Citing this statistic, attorneys from the Brennan Center\u00a0challenged\u00a0<\/a>felon disenfranchisement in 2001, alleging a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.\u00a0 In 2005, the 11th Circuit found no violation and the Supreme Court denied cert.\u00a0 Potential discriminatory disenfranchisement under\u00a0Bondi\u2019s new rule\u00a0will likely be permissible as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smita Ghosh\u00a0 One can imagine, in Florida, applying for admission to UF or to get into some of the\u00a0State\u2019s other\u00a0hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-bZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}