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In the United States, loss of rights due to criminal conviction can take several forms, including voting disenfranchisement, exclusion from jury duty, and loss of the right to possess firearms
Disenfranchisement[edit]
Main article: Felony disenfranchisement
Every state with the exception of Maine and Vermont prohibits felons from voting while in prison.[13] Nine other states disenfranchise felons for various lengths of time following the completion of their probation or parole. However, the severity of each state's disenfranchisement varies. 1 in 43 adults were disenfranchised as of 2006.[14] The issue of disenfranchisement gained awareness in 2000 after the "excruciatingly close" presidential election, wherein 2% of the voting-age population was prohibited from participating.[14] In that election, George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes, however 31% of black Floridians were denied the vote due to disenfranchisement.[15] Given that African American voters are typically Democratic voters, it was argued at the time that their exclusion "decisively" changed the outcome of the election.[citation needed]
In Reynolds v. Sims, the Court ruled that the right to vote is a “fundamental right,” establishing a strict scrutiny test. Further, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees “equal protection of the laws” to all persons. However, Section 2 of this Amendment allows states to remove voting privileges from anyone who has participated in “rebellion or other crime.”[14] A 1972 Supreme Court ruling found that this article applied to disenfranchisement of ex-felons. The Civic Participation and Rehabilitation Act, allowing for ex-felons to vote, has been introduced at the beginning of every legislative session since 1994, but has never made it to the floor of Congress.
Two states, Kentucky and Florida (Gov. Rick Scott reverted to the old policy in 2010 that had been changed by Gov. Charlie Crist), continue to impose a lifelong denial of the right to vote to all citizens with a felony record, in the absence of a restoration of civil rights by the Governor or, where allowed, state legislature.[13] Florida law is somewhat unique, in that the individual must be pardoned by the Governor and a majority of the publicly elected State Cabinet (with the Governor's vote being the tiebreaker, if necessary).
Felon jury exclusion[edit]
The lifetime exclusion of felons from jury service is the majority rule in the United States, used in 31 states and in federal courts. The result is that over 6% of the adult population is excluded, including about 30% of black men.[16] Felon jury exclusion is less visible than felony disenfranchisement, and few socio-legal scholars have challenged the statutes that withhold a convicted felon’s opportunity to sit on a jury.[17] While constitutional challenges to felon jury exclusion almost always originate from interested litigants, some scholars contend that "it is the interests of the excluded felons that are most directly implicated."
Yet attacks on these blanket prohibitions levied by excluded felon jurors have failed consistently. The United States Supreme Court does not recognize the right to sit on a jury as fundamental.[18] It has been pointed out that, although lawmakers assert that felon jury exclusion measures protect the integrity of the adjudicative process, as felons “lack the requisite probity” to serve on a jury and are “inherently biased,” many of the states subscribing to this practice allow felons to practice law.[19] But that is a double-standard only if it is presumed that those who judge the arguments of both sides in a case are allowed to be as biased as those arguing for each side.
The United States Department of Justice has argued that felon jury exclusion laws do not discriminate against the disabled because there is no evidence that drug addicts as a class are convicted of felonies in any greater number than other classes of felons.[20]
Loss of right to possess firearms[edit]
Felons are regarded by the federal government, and most US states, as being "prohibited persons" under US law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)). It is a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison under this subsection "to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce." This has been litigated before the Supreme Court. However, the Court upheld the regulation.[citation needed]