According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, requiring some individuals to bear anundue financial burden before voting is tantamount to a poll tax in violation of the constitutional right to vote and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. “The legal financial obligations provision creates an undue burden on the voting rights of the economically disadvantaged,” said ACLU-TN Cooperating Attorney Charles Grant, of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz. “Although not intended, these provisions harken back to a time when Blacks, the poor and other marginalized groups were required to pay poll taxes for the privilege to vote. We are hopeful the courtwill protect the rights of all Tennessee voters, not just the ones who can afford to buy back their franchise.”

Today’s legal action, filed against state and county officials, challenges a 2006 law that changed the process by which individuals with criminal convictions may seek the restoration of their voting rights. According to the law, “a person shall not be eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored unless such person has paid all restitution to the victim orvictims of the offense ordered by the court as part of the sentence…[and] unless such person is current in all child support obligations.”

The ACLU brought its lawsuit on behalf of three individuals – Terence Johnson, Jim Harris and Alexander Friedman – who have completed their terms of imprisonment, parole, and probation for their offenses. Johnson and Harris are ineligible to vote because they owe child support for children they currently have custody of.

Friedman applied for restoration of his voting rights in 2006, but Tennessee denied his application, claiming that he owes over 1,000 dollars in restitution. “My dream is to have the opportunity to become a fully productive citizen again, regardless of my economic status. And I have the right to participate in the electoral process to bring about change to the issues that concern me most in my community,” said Terence Johnson, a plaintiff in this case. “I’ve served my time, I am a tax paying citizen and I have custody of my daughter. It is wrong for the state to punish me and other people while we get our lives back on track.”

Until recently, Tennessee’s voting rights restoration law – a patchwork of rules, restrictions, and procedures – was the most confusing and complicated in the country. Although a former felon no longer needs to go before a judge to have his or her right to vote restored, the law still requires several procedural steps before restoration is complete.

“The ability to vote should not be based on one’s financial status,”said Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Penalizing low-income parents by charging them a fee to exercise their constitutional right to vote is shameful. This law has no place in a functioning democracy.” Weinberg continued, “ACLU is committed to securing additional reforms to make Tennessee’s voting laws more user-friendly and to ensure that all people who have been incarcerated can regain their full voting rights.”

In addition to the equal protection claim, the ACLU’s lawsuit charges the Tennessee law violates the 24th Amendment’s voting rights provision and the due process protections in the federal and state constitutions. Attorneys on the case are ACLU-TN Cooperating Attorney Charles Grant of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC., Tricia Herzfeld, ACLU-TN Staff Attorney, and Nancy Abudu, Laughlin McDonald and Neil Bradley of the national ACLU Voting Rights Project .

A copy of today’s legal complaint is available at: http://www.aclu-tn.org/pdfs/Complaint_FelonVote.pdf

More information on the work of the ACLU Voting Rights Project is available at: http://www.votingrights.org/

The conference will focus on young people’s rights, both in school and in the community. Topics include freedom of speech and expression, discipline, dress code, youth violence, LGBT rights, and drug testing. Special sessions will focus on what to do when stopped by the police and Activism 101 (the tools needed for making change), Freedom of Expression (including student rights related to speech, press, dress, and the Internet), and Street Law (including student rights and responsibilities related to police and the courts, racial profiling and police/community relations).

Conference participants include Attorney and First Amendment Center Scholar David Hudson, Metro Nashville Police Chief Ronal Serpas, Referee Sheila Calloway of the Metro Nashville Juvenile Court, and youth activist Lindsay Earls, a plaintiff in the 2002 Earls v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that challenged random drug testing of high school students participating in extra-curricular activities.

This event is free and includes lunch and a snack will be provide. Participants need to pre-register by Feb. 29th by filling out and sending in the registration form from our website, or through Facebook (search “ACLU Students Rights Conference”).

For further information, call Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director ACLU-TN at 615-320-7142.