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Judge Bill Pryor's decision upholding Florida's poll tax on ex-felons is one of the most dishonest, misleading, and despicable voting rights opinions I have ever read. It is shockingly bad—an affront of the very notion that Americans have a right to vote. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7206660/9-11-20-Jones-v-Florida-11th-Opinion.pdf
This decision was inevitable after Trump flipped the 11th Circuit by appointing five judges, all of whom joined today's appalling opinion, which truly makes me sick to my stomach. This is an incredibly dark day for voting rights.
If Floridians want to restore voting rights to ex-felons, they will need to pass ANOTHER constitutional amendment, because Republicans have effectively nullified the last one—and the judiciary let them get away with it. What happened here is sickening and extremely ominous.
There are so many lies in Pryor's opinion. Lies about why Florida enacted a poll tax. Lies about how it operates. The decision rests on fictions rejected by the trial court yet unquestioningly embraced by the 11th Circuit. Pryor is peddling outright falsehoods. It is sickening.
The 11th Circuit's conservatives should've had the guts to stand up and say: Yes, Florida is forcing ex-felons into an impossible position by ordering them to pay this court debt, because literally no one—including the state—has any idea how much they actually owe. And that's OK.
Instead, the 11th Circuit hid behind a lie, asserting falsely that ex-felons actually can calculate their court debt and restore their right to vote. No. The court is lying to us. It is lying to you. This is cowardly, abominable gaslighting. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/florida-amendment-4-fines-fees-unconstitutional-ruling.html
I just don't know how we are supposed to have confidence in our court if judges feel they can lie to us in the service of disenfranchisement. It isn't a fair fight if states can revoke a fundamental right and courts can just lie about the facts to give them a green light.
