Members of voting rights groups hold signs calling for protection of voting rights at a news conference in Jackson, Miss., Dec. 7, 2023. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
The most conservative appellate court in the country on Thursday reinstated a Jim Crow-era felon disenfranchisement law in Mississippi that could prevent tens of thousands of people, who are disproportionately Black, from voting in November.
The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and has become infamous for its fiercely right-wing opinions, upheld a state law dating back to 1890 that permanently prevents Mississippians from voting if they have been convicted of a list of 22 criminal categories, encompassing about 100 specific crimes, that include timber larceny, bigamy, and writing a bad check. The opinion overturns the ruling of a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit from August 2023 which invalidated Mississippi’s law, saying that it violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Writing for the 13-member majority, Judge Edith Jones, an appointee........