As a member of the list/serve and one of the General Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, I would like to respond to Brett Bellmore's critique of the ACLU report on felon disfranchisement.
    Mr. Bellmore may not consider the right to vote among "the inalienable rights" of Americans," but the ACLU does.  No organization in this country has fought more vigorously to protect and extend the right to vote than the ACLU.  It has an entire office (located in Atlanta) devoted to voting rights litigation.  Indeed, the ACLU has long endorsed the oft-repeated statement  of the United States Supreme Court that the right to vote is among the most important rights of Americans because it is "preservative of  all other rights."
     Nor is there any other organization that has fought harder against racial discrimination and for the equal protection of the laws than the ACLU.  The ACLU has been in the forefront of every major civil rights battle for way more than half a century.
     Felon disfranchisement stands at the crossroads of these two all-important rights, involving the right of the racial minority community to participate fully and equitably in the electoral/political process.  Because of  racial profiling and other discriminatory aspects of the criminal justice system which results in the investigation, arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentencing (and thus disfranchisement) of racial minorities in numbers greatly disproportionate to their propensity top commit crime, the political power of the minority community is substantially diluted.  
    That is why the ACLU considers felon disfranchisement one of the major civil liberties problems remaining in the U.S.  I, for myself, consider felon disfranchisement about the last vestige of slavery in the nation.
     As to the rights of former offenders to own guns (which seems to be the burning issue for Mr. Bellmore), the ACLU has no position on gun control.  I, myself, would probably agree with him that non-violent offenders should not be treated differently than other persons as to gun rights.  But to compare that to the right to vote, and especially the right of racial minorities to political equity, seems to me compare a hangnail with a deadly disease.  FRANK ASKIN

Prof. Frank Askin
Constitutional Litigation Clinic
Rutgers Law School/Newark
(973) 353-5687