#BREAKING: federal court rules that Florida's "pay-to-vote" system violates the Constitution. More details and full opinion to come--still reading!

The Court held that Florida's "pay-to-vote" system is unconstitutional as applied to individuals who genuinely cannot afford to pay their outstanding legal financial obligations.

It also held that conditioning rights restoration on the payment of court costs and fees is an unconstitutional poll tax, in violation of the 24th Amendment. This is *huge* news: the first time that a court has struck down a rights restoration scheme under the 24th Amendment.

Fed up with the State's inability to develop a procedure, the Court devised its own. Florida voters may request Advisory Opinions from the State as to their eligibility--and the State must respond within 21 days or allow them to register and vote.

Florida's new voter registration forms implementing these requirements violate the National Voter Registration Act and cannot be used.

Most importantly, the State's last-ditch attempts to argue that Amendment 4 cannot survive without the financial obligation requirement were unsuccessful. Amendment 4 survives; Florida's unconstitutional method of implementing it does not.

This is a huge win for the hundreds of thousands of Floridians whose rights were restored in 2018, and the millions more who voted for #Amendment4.

And of course, for our incredible clients: Bonnie, Diane, and Lee. They--along with the hundreds of thousands of members of the plaintiff class they represent--are the reason we did this.

https://campaignlegal.org/story/florida-trying-silence-me-poll-tax

https://campaignlegal.org/story/floridian-shares-how-campaign-legal-center-restored-her-voting-rights https://campaignlegal.org/story/military-vet-fl-poll-tax-i-felt-rug-ripped-under-my-feet

So proud to have represented my fellow Floridians alongside our amazing @CampaignLegal team: @DaniLang_DC, @markpgaber, @MollyDinDC, @SimoneLeeper, @JeffZalesin, @aseemmulji and our incredible colleagues at @ACLU, @ACLUFL, @NAACP_LDF, @BrennanCenter, @splcenter, and @PaulWeissLLP

TL;DR

Florida can no longer deny people access to the ballot box based on unpaid court costs and fees, nor can they condition rights restoration on restitution and fines that a person cannot afford to pay.

Full trial decision (all 125 pages!) here: https://campaignlegal.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/04916816902.pdf

#JonesvDeSantis #Amendment4