Mississippi Ban on Felons Voting Upheld Despite Racist History

A provision of the Mississippi Constitution prohibiting certain felons from voting, which was originally adopted specifically to disenfranchise Blacks, doesn’t violate the US Constitution, the en banc Fifth Circuit said.

Reenactments of the provision in 1950 and 1968 erased the invidious racist taint, the per curiam opinion said Wednesday.

When adopted in 1890, the provision denied the right to vote to any person convicted of bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, and bigamy. At the time, those were considered Black crimes—crimes that were primarily committed by Blacks.

The 1950 amendment removed burglary, ...