Court Blocks Restrictions on Ex-Felons Voting in Florida (1)

Florida can’t require convicted felons to pay all their legal financial obligations to the state before reclaiming their right to vote if they show they are indigent, the Eleventh Circuit said Wednesday.

The legal financial obligations law violates the equal protection clause because it unconstitutionally denies the right to vote to a class of felons based only on their wealth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that access to the ballot box isn’t related to a person’s wealth, it said.

Florida voters in 2018 adopted a state constitutional ...