A major blow to voting rights. The Supreme Court's GOP majority just allowed the Florida GOP's poll tax to remain in effect, disenfranchising nearly 800,000 disproportionately Black citizens. The case proceeds on the merits, but this guarantees they can't vote in August's primary
Florida uses predatory fines & fees to fund its court system, & they've made it impossible for many people who've served their felony sentences to even find out how much $ they owe. A lower court struck down this law, but GOP judges reinstated it on appeal dailykos.com/stories/2020/7…
I fully expect our GOP federal judiciary to let the Florida GOP's poll tax remain in effect for November, even though the 24th Amendment bans poll taxes & "other" taxes that are barriers to voting based on wealth. John Roberts & Trump's judges are arch enemies of voting rights
NEW: In a major blow to voting rights, the U.S. Supreme court has allowed the Florida GOP's poll tax to remain in effect, likely keeping 800,000 citizens banned from voting in November. 43% of the affected voters are Black, 3x their share of the population dailykos.com/story/2020/7/1…
Nearly 800,000 Florida citizens are estimated to be affected by the poll tax. A majority of them are estimated to owe at least $500, but Florida makes it impossible for many people to even know what they owe, which is why the lower court had struck it down
John Roberts still pretends he just calls balls & strikes, but this was an instance of Republican Party activists on the judiciary implementing their preferred policy of helping the GOP by ensuring hundreds of thousands of people can't vote in Florida
