[EL] Student article on felon disenfranchisement

[Josh Douglas]

Folks,

One of my students, Guy Hamilton-Smith, along with co-author Matt Vogel,
just posted on SSRN their article *The Ballot as a Bulwark:  The Impact of
Felony Disenfranchisement on Recidivism*.  It is forthcoming in the Berkeley
La Raza Law Journal.  You can find it here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1919617.  The abstract is
below.  I was happy to supervise this work and think it is a good
contribution to the debate on felon disenfranchisement laws.

Josh

Felony disenfranchisement – the exclusion of individuals convicted of
felonies from the voting rolls – is a practice that is commonplace in the
United States. In 2010, approximately 5.3 million Americans were ineligible
to vote because of a prior felony conviction. Despite the fact that the
justifications for disenfranchisement in a democratic society could be
characterized as dubious, disenfranchisement has withstood various legal
challenges and remains a widespread practice in almost every state. One
argument which has never been examined empirically is the notion that
disenfranchisement hampers efforts to rehabilitate offenders, which is what
this article does. First, this article explores the history and philosophy
that underlies disenfranchisement along with theoretical mechanisms by which
disenfranchisement can be thought to have an impact on recidivism. Second,
the legal challenges that have been made against disenfranchisement are
discussed with a particular focus on challenges under the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the Voting Rights Act. A novel
constitutional argument under principles of congruence and proportionality
is also examined. Third, this article uses re-arrest data collected by the
United States Department of Justice to examine the impact of felony
disenfranchisement on recidivism. These results are discussed along with
implications for future inquiries.


-- 
Joshua A. Douglas
Assistant Professor of Law
University of Kentucky College of Law
620 S. Limestone
Lexington, KY 40506
(859) 257-4935
joshuadouglas at uky.edu
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