Federal appeals court blocks hundreds of thousands of felons in Florida who still owe fines and fees

[scarletwoman]

Last edited Fri Sep 11, 2020, 04:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post

By Lori Rozsa
September 11, 2020 at 2:10 p.m. CDT

A federal appeals court on Friday blocked hundreds of thousands of felons in Florida who still owe fines and fees from registering to vote, putting a halt to what was potentially the nation's largest re-enfranchisement of voters in more than 50 years.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed with Gov. Ron DeSantis that the payment of fines and fees by ex-felons is part of their "terms of sentence," and must be satisfied before they can register.

The decision comes less than a month before the presidential swing state's Oct. 5 deadline to register to vote for November's general election.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision," said Paul Smith, vice president at Campaign Legal Center.

Smith's group and others sued DeSantis after he signed a law that put the payment conditions on a widely supported state constitutional amendment. In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment that allowed felons to register to vote, overturning decades of practice where felons had to petition the governor to have their rights restored.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-felon-voting/2020/09/11/9a6b5d3a-f45e-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html?tidr=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar

---

This absolutely sucks. I've read previously that in many cases, it isn't even possible to track down every fine or fee owed, due to the multiplicity of jurisdictions and/or the age of the original charge and lost paperwork.

What we need to do for these people is find some way to get as many of these fines and fees paid as possible through some kind of fund.

On edit: Here are a couple organizations I found who are dedicated to helping felons get back their voting rights:

https://floridarrc.com/about/ - FRRC is a grassroots, membership organization run by Returning Citizens (Formerly Convicted Persons) who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety.

https://www.morethanavote.org/ - We are Black athletes and artists working together. Our priority right now is combating systemic, racist voter suppression by educating, energizing, and protecting our community in 2020. Please read our letter asking fans to join us in the fight against Black voter suppression. (This is the one that LeBron James is involved with)

[Phoenix61]

1. A lot of the fees were turned over to collection

agencies many, many years ago. It’s DeSatan doing what he does best. Being a little Donny.

[Miguelito Loveless]

17. If they have been turned over for collections, that means

the collection agency bought them for pennies on the dollar. This means the state has accepted this amount of money as payment. They cannot accept payment, then claim the fines/fees were not paid.

[Phoenix61]

22. They didn't do it that way.

They allowed the collection agency to tack on collection fees and the debt stays open until it’s paid.Nice little racket, right.

[FBaggins]

25. It depends on how they are "turned over"

A collection agency can be engaged to try to collect in exchange for a percentage of whatever they bring in... but that doesn't transfer the ownership of the debt. If the debts were instead sold to a collections agency, that's different... but I don't think that municipalities commonly do that.

[FM123]

2. This is such horrible news.

We finally have more registered Dems than repugs down here and a chance to flip the state blue - then this. We need someone like Mike Bloomberg who pledged big bucks to come down here and pay off some of these fines. Not everybody's fines can be paid off (some folks don't know how much they owe) but a LOT can. It just might swing the election.

[PBC_Democrat]

3. Wouldn't the fees/fines/whatever be listed in the final verdict?

I totally agree with SW that we need to put together a team of aspiring lawyers to determine what is owed and who it is owed to ... than have a foundation made the payment for tracking purpose.

Someone with knowledge of the legal system should be able to reverse engineer the process that the state would use to assert that a fine/penalty was not paid.

We should be able to use that same system to determine what is owed ... and pay it.

[Phoenix61]

23. The fines/fees etc are listed.

It’s the collection piece that’s a goat rope.

[turbinetree]

4. So in other words when Citizens put a initiative on the ballot and they vote to approve it.......

Last edited Fri Sep 11, 2020, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)

and it wins..........................the states little fucking dictator can get it thrown out...........tell me again what makes this country so great............I thought and was taught that when you vote it means something.............well John Trudell was right............


I am not looking to overthrow the American government, the corporate state already has, John Trudell- Santee Dakota activist, artist, and poet (1946-2015)

[ananda]

5. Can the Dems just pay the fees and fines?

???

[jrandom421]

6. LeBron James is on it

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/politics/lebron-james-florida-voting-rights-felons/index.html

[List left]

8. Thanks! nt

The article says donating $100,000. they are going to need more help than that.

[ananda]

10. Oh good!

Thanks!

[scarletwoman]

13. I've added a couple links to my OP for organizations who are helping.

[Phoenix61]

24. Yes they can. And judges can change fines/fees

to community service and some have.

[List left]

7. can't remember who but there was someone who said they would pay outstanding

fines of Florida felons. 100's of thousands x the fines is going to be an awful lot of money though.

You beat me to it.

[beachbumbob]

30. many billionaires can easily write check and no its not 100's of thousands of felons

[llashram]

9. yeah, I know they

are responsible, partially, for their present plight. The fines in most cases are probably small, hey Bloomberg step up, help those who are trying to help themselves and hopefully our country.

[Thekaspervote]

11. Sad yes, remember we don't need FL to win, it would be nice, but it isn't necessary

[Grins]

12. This is BADLY written

What was the decision?
A panel or en banc?
If panel then it could be appealed right back to the 11th for en banc.
Or SCOTUS.

[scarletwoman]

14. It appears to be en banc:

https://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/todays-published-opinions

On edit - link to the pdf of the decision: https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202012003.enb.pdf

[DanMack64]

15. 5 of the 6 were Trumpy appointments

With a circuit of over 20 judges how did they pick 5 of the 6 judges tRump appointed for this case.

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, WILSON, MARTIN, JORDAN, JILL
PRYOR, NEWSOM, BRANCH, GRANT, LUCK, and LAGOA, Circuit Judges.

Pryor-Bush
Wilson-Clinton
Martin-Obama
Jordan-Obama
Jill Pryor-Obama
Newsom-Trump
Branch-Trump
Grant-Trump
Luck-Trump
Lagoa-Trump

How do the most Jr judges get assigned all at once to this case?

This shit drives me crazy

(20+ year lurker-read DU everyday)

[JudyM]

16. Welcome to DU, DanMack64!

Great first post, glad you came out from behind the curtain.

[FBaggins]

21. That's how en-banc appeals work

The 11th circuit doesn't actually have "over 20 judges". They have a dozen circuit judges (or 11 plus the chief)... and then eleven retired/senior judges who can occasionally sit on 3-judge panels. Some senior judges remain reasonably active and others rarely hear a case... but an en-banc hearing excludes senior judges.

Not that it would make that much difference. Of the 11 senior judges, only four were appointed by Democrats.

[yaesu]

18. they are bringing back the deep south poll tax. nt

[csziggy]

19. Florida needs to pass a law that ALL fines and fees MUST be billed

Within a certain period of time after conviction and/or completion of any other sentence. If they are not billed within that period, they are null and void and can NEVER be counted against the person who has fulfilled every other part of the sentence.

Make it retroactive - maybe give the state a period of time ( no more than six months) to cull their records and come up with an accounting of all owed fees - and put a stop to this practice of not completely informing people attempting to return to society of all the claimed obligations.

Unfortunately, this has been drawn out by the Florida GOP so that many people who otherwise should be able to vote - by the choice of the voters of Florida - will be barred this time around. But we need to make it so old fines that the people were never aware of or that were forgotten cannot be dredged up in the future.

[NBachers]

20. I'm an ex-offender with a long Federal sentence behind me; I live in California, and can vote.

I just helped pay it back by making a contribution. Here's how:

https://wegotthevote.org/finesandfees/

Thanks for posting this.

[scarletwoman]

26. Many thanks for posting that link!

I'm glad to know you can vote, and huge props to you for paying it forward!

[onetexan]

27. Didn't lebron james' group pay the fines?

[scarletwoman]

28. See post #6 - there's a link to a story about Lebron James' donation.

[Danmel]

29. Maybe Bloomberg can pay off their fines

[Marthe48]

31. poll tax

n/t

[scarletwoman]

32. Exactly.