{"id":4772,"date":"2004-01-08T11:04:58","date_gmt":"2004-01-08T18:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2004-01-08T11:04:58","modified_gmt":"2004-01-08T18:04:58","slug":"con_game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/08\/con_game.html","title":{"rendered":"Con game"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know when things changed, or if it was just a California thing, but I always thought it was universally true that a felony conviction cost you your right to vote. Screw society enough to be a felon, and society politely asks you to sit in the corner and be quiet …<\/p>\n

Well, I guess that’s neitehr as universal nor as uniform as I thought. Many states allow ex-cons to vote. Others reinstate voting rights once parole or probation are over. Some states even let those inside of prison vote. The idea is that by encouraging participation in society, by getting that buy-in, you may reduce crime.<\/p>\n

It’s an interesting idea. I’m not sure how much I buy it, but it’s certainly worth debating.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, why debate it when you can sue to have things your way?
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union and several minority rights advocates filed suit yesterday, seeking to overturn a New Jersey law that prohibits convicted felons from voting after they have left prison and are serving terms of parole or probation.
\n“The purpose of the lawsuit is to expand democracy and expand voting rights,” said Prof. Frank Askin, director of the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic and one of the lawyers who prepared the suit. “Public policy favors reintegrating ex-offenders into society, including making them full participants in civic life. We don’t believe the state has any justification in denying these people the right to vote.”<\/p>\n

What’s interesting here is that, though, is that while the suit is put forward as a civics debate on how best to “reintegrate ex-offenders” (to be established by judicial fiat), the suit’s arguments have nothing to do with that.<\/p>\n

The suit contends that denial of voting rights to those on probation or parole violates the New Jersey Constitution’s provisions guaranteeing equal opportunities under the law. Mr. Askin said most parolees or probationers in New Jersey are black or Hispanic, in numbers that he said were disproportionate to the propensity of their racial groups to commit crimes. Consequently, Mr. Arkin said, black and Hispanic communities have been denied an equal opportunity to influence the electoral and political process.
\nHe said 80 percent of the 15,000 ex-convicts now on parole in New Jersey and 60 percent of the 70,000 on probation are black or Hispanic.<\/p>\n

In other words, law barring felons in prison or on parole or probation from voting isn’t wrong because of “public policy,” but because it’s The Man Keeping Us Down.<\/p>\n

I note that the number of black or Hispanic folks being talked about here – about 50,000 — is a tiny fraction (less than 1%) of the total 7 million <\/i>blacks or Hispanic adults in the state<\/a>. That doesn’t mean it’s fair, or that it’s good public policy, but it’s hardly a significant impact on the black and Hispanic communities’ ability to “the electoral and political process.”<\/p>\n

Again, it’s a public policy matter that can be debated. But trying to bypass that debate by making sweepingly overblown statements in support of a law suit is hardly a way to guarantee anyone’s “equal oppotunity to inluence the electoral and political process” — aside from anyone being able to sue <\/i>to influence it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know when things changed, or if it was just a California thing, but I always thought it was universally true that a felony conviction cost you your right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44571,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/24\/get-out-the-vote-unless-it-might-vote-against-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":0},"title":"Get out the vote (unless it might vote against you)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 24-Aug-14 10:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The core requirement of any democracy is buy-in. People accept and support a democratic government if they feel their voices are heard. They may disagree with specific outcomes but accept the system if they are a part of it.For which reason, the idea of registering people to vote who might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40239,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/30\/cant-tell-your-citizen-without-a-national-id-card.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":1},"title":"Can’t tell your citizen without a national ID card","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Dec-13 2:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Honestly? After many years of feeling differently, I think we're actually just about ready for a National ID card. \u00a0First, it's abundantly clear that the national government is already in possession of massive amounts of information about us as individuals. The whole \"The One World Order Government will know what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/05\/get_out_the_vot.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":2},"title":"Get out the vote","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Oct-04 8:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Joshua Claybourn regrets news reports that voter registration is way up for this election. But the reality is that most citizens aren't informed, and quite frankly I'm okay with them...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":151524,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/06\/the-2020-election-and-dark-fantasies.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":3},"title":"The 2020 Election and Dark Fantasies","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Oct-20 5:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald has damaged the nation by damaging the election, and it may get worse.","rel":"","context":"In "Conspiracy Nuts"","block_context":{"text":"Conspiracy Nuts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/conspiracy-nuts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trump-podium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trump-podium.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trump-podium.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trump-podium.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trump-podium.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136290,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/07\/hacking-the-electoral-college.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":4},"title":"Hacking the Electoral College","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-May-18 8:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Connecticut is joining a coalition of other states trying to bypass the zaniness of the Electoral College, which has led to US presidents being elected even though they lost the popular vote. While the most recent time this happened (in 2016) is noteworthy for the resulting disastrous choice it foisted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/voting.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30821,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/the-electoral-college-everyones-favorite-election-year-complaint.html","url_meta":{"origin":4772,"position":5},"title":"The Electoral College: Everyone’s Favorite Election Year Complaint","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Oct-12 8:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Every four years the US gets into a big internal debate (at least in some circles) about the Electoral College and how it distorts the system from a pure, fine democracy into safe states, swing states, and the potential for winning the popular vote but not the electoral vote. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/california-electoral-college.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/california-electoral-college.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/california-electoral-college.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/california-electoral-college.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}