[pardon the lack of links; I'm having trouble posting to the blog.  I 
will resend this later with links.]

Breaking News: Eleventh Circuit En Banc Rejects Challenge to Florida's 
Felon Disenfranchisement Law

The Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, has decided Johnson v. Governor 
of Florida. The en banc court held that Florida's felon 
disenfranchisement law violated neither the Equal Protection Clause of 
the 14th Amendment nor Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. One judge 
dissented on the VRA provision; another judge dissented on both the VRA 
and the constitutional claim.

This is a very important decision. There is already a split on this 
issue, most recently between the Ninth and Second Circuits, and I have 
already predicted that this is an issue that will ultimately have to be 
resolved by the Supreme Court. I have only had time to skim the 
opinion, but one of the issues appears to be whether the Supreme 
Court's opinion in Tennessee v. Lane makes it easier for the courts to 
uphold applications to the Voting Rights Act against claims that the 
VRA as interpreted exceeds congressional power. The majority opinion 
rejects this reading of Lane. A dissenter adopts it. (I discuss this 
aspect of Lane as applied to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in my 
forthcoming Ohio State Law Journal article, which should be out any 
day.) 

We haven't heard the last of this issue, or this case. Thanks to Howard 
Bashman for the pointer.