Voting rights: Excluding felons is unconstitutional abuse

Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election.

The Dallas Morning News last year reported the oftentimes arbitrary and inconsistent conditions or requirements that have to be met in order for a felon to be “eligible“ to vote, which is not necessarily the same thing as casting a vote at the ballot box.

Mason was already on probation for a federal tax fraud charge, which brings up an important question: Can a right guaranteed by the Constitution be revoked or diminished?

In Article 6, Section 2 (Supremacy Clause), it stipulates that the Constitution is the “Law of the Land” and the 15th Amendment “guarantees” any citizen the right, not just the privilege, to vote. And no jurisdiction can take that away.

It is quite surprising to me that such abuses have not been challenged in the Supreme Court or that the nation’s highest judiciary would approve conduct which offends the Constitution.

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 5:39 PM.