Supreme Court Declines to Hear Challenge to Mississippi’s Felon Voting Ban

The decision leaves in place one of the nation’s strictest voting restrictions, rooted in a Jim Crow-era provision of the Mississippi Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to Mississippi's lifetime voting ban for individuals convicted of certain felonies, even after they have completed their sentences.
Mississippi's voting ban, codified in the state’s 1890 constitution with racist intent, disproportionately impacts Black residents and includes non-violent offenses such as perjury and forgery.
The plaintiffs argued the law violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, but a lower court upheld the ban.
Mississippi is one of 11 states that does not automatically restore voting rights to felons, and its process for regaining voting rights is described as onerous and rarely successful.
Since 1974, 26 states have expanded voting rights for individuals with felony convictions, but Mississippi remains an outlier with some of the harshest restrictions in the U.S.