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Friday, January 30, 2026

Felon Disenfranchisement and Reconstruction

Gerard N. Magliocca

I want to flag an important new opinion from Virginia. A Federal District Court there held that the state's disenfranchisement of felons violates the Act of Congress that readmitted the state in 1870. That Act said that Virginia could not amend its state constitution to disenfranchise citizens "except as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law." (emphasis added). Virginia's current constitutional rule for felon suffrage sweeps well beyond felonies recognized in 1870.

A similar provision was included in the Acts of Congress that readmitted Mississippi and Texas in 1870. Similar lawsuits are likely there.


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