Abstract
Felony disenfranchisement laws prevent millions of American citizens from voting. While the recent legal trend has been to eradicate felony disenfranchisement, each state currently has a unique framework, and the issue remains unsettled nationwide. In 2018, the state of Florida passed a constitutional amendment that allowed felons to regain their right to vote once their sentence was finished. Soon after, the Governor DeSantis signed Fla. Stat. Ann. § 98.0751 into law, which required felons to pay off all court cost before their right to vote will be restored. This new law prevented thousands of otherwise eligible felons from voting in the 2020 general election, disproportionately impacting lower income Black voters. This article makes policy arguments against Fla. Stat. Ann. § 98.0751 and demonstrates that the law violates the Twenty-Fourth Amendment by requiring felons to pay a tax in order to regain their right to vote.
Recommended Citation
Gallwitz, Lyndsey
(2022)
"The Case Against Florida Statute §98.0751,"
Akron Law Review: Vol. 55:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol55/iss1/5