Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution provides for ten felony offenses: murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, acquisition of money or property under false pretext, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, and bigamy. You will lose your voting rights. This law was enacted in 1890 and originally did not include rape and murder, but robbery. In its ruling, the court designed restrictions for states to disenfranchise those convicted of “black crimes,” but not the voting rights of those convicted of “white crimes.” pointed out that it maintains
Amendments were made in 1950 and 1968, with the 1968 amendment adding rape and murder. Both amendments were voted on by Mississippians at the time. The 1968 amendment came after the 1965 Federal Civil Rights Commission criticized the creation of racist legislation and the state’s “widespread racist voting practices at the time,” and the restrictions were placed on voting. It said it was designed to “achieve the same result” as “explicit denial” of black citizens’ voting rights, according to the ruling. In this latest challenge to the law, Roy Harness and Kamal Kariem are two blacks from Mississippi who were convicted of forgery and forgery.The convictions disqualified them from voting. The embezzlers filed suit in August 2019, challenging their denial of rights under the Equal Protection Clause.
According to both the majority and dissent, the law was constructed with racist intent to prevent blacks from voting.
“It is indisputable that when the 1890 Constitution was adopted, the State Constitutional Convention was steeped in racism, and that ‘the States were motivated by a desire to discriminate against blacks,'” court said. A 10 to 7 majority wrote in an unsigned opinion.
The drafting of the law was racist, but the majority opinion was “repeated” in 1968 as the law was amended twice requiring approval by both Congress and a popular vote of voters. decided that it no longer existed. In the same context as the racist inception. The court ruled that the 1968 rewrite “removed the discriminatory stain” and could not be overturned on the basis of the racist intent it admitted had informed the old-style law. did.na
“This clause was part of a plan in 1890 to disenfranchise blacks who had obtained the right to vote after the Civil War,” he said in a post-judgment statement, representing Harnes and Kariem in court.
“Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals has allowed it to stay in place despite its racist origins,” McDuff said. Despite this setback, he said they will appeal the ruling in the United States Supreme Court.
The court held that the law was made with racist intent but was amended, and plaintiffs argued that the current law enacted in 1968 was “racist motivated”. I’ve discovered that it doesn’t prove that.
Three dissents, submitted by Justices Jennifer Walker Elrod, Catharina Haynes, and James E. Graves Jr., point out that a popular vote-approved amendment may not necessarily be mandatory.
“Mississippi voters have never been asked to drop or approve eight of the original nine crimes. When robbery was dropped in 1950 and rape and murder were added in 1968, , Mississippians were given only “up or down” options for crime. Accept §241 as amended and not §241 as it existed at the time,” he dissented Judge Elrod.
In his dissent, joined by judges Carl E. Stewart, James L. Dennis, Stephen A. Higginson, and Greg J. Costa, Graves also argued that as the 1968 vote “reproduced” the law, it Cleaned of any racist intent.
“Even with this erroneous ‘reenactment’ theory, a quick look at Mississippi’s well-known history reveals facts about whether Congress and voters acted with discriminatory intent in 1968. Controversy is established,” wrote Graves.
“Even a cursory review of Mississippi’s history up to 1968 shows that life for blacks in Mississippi during this period was a little better than that of their grandparents in 1890.
Source: www.cnn.com
