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A Democratic-appointed judge in Florida blocked Republican voting restrictions, but whether they can be enforced may ultimately be up to Republican-appointed appellate judges.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in the Northern District of Florida, halted enforcement of two provisions enacted under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. One of them bars noncitizens from registering citizens to vote. The other bars people working for third-party voter registration organizations from keeping certain voter information. (If that one sounds vague, Walker agreed, as you’ll see.)
“This case arises from Florida’s latest assault on the right to vote,” Walker, who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, wrote in his preliminary injunction ruling Monday.
“The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution,” he added.
As to the citizenship requirement, Walker found it likely violates equal protection under the Constitution. Florida officials claimed to worry that noncitizens would leave the country before turning in voter registrations for citizens. But a problem with that, he observed, is the state didn’t put forth evidence that noncitizens “have such a fleeting presence in this country as to justify a wholesale ban on their collecting or handling voter registration applications.”
As for the information retention ban, it’s too vague, Walker wrote. The provision bars, among other things, retaining a voter’s “personal information.” He said it suffered from the “twin evils” of “failing to provide notice of what is prohibited” and “authorizing or encouraging arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
The prospect of appeal is worrying for voting rights, especially given Walker’s history of being overturned by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The judge found the statute “so devoid of meaning that it cannot possibly give people of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what information they are allowed to retain and for what purposes they may do so.” That’s especially problematic, he noted, in the context of a law that imposes criminal liability.
Walker seemed to anticipate that his ruling would be challenged. Declining to stay his injunction pending appeal, he noted that Florida officials “have every right to appeal” and so he “sees no reason to delay Defendants in seeking an appeal by requiring them to move to stay” his injunction.
The prospect of appeal is worrying for voting rights, especially given Walker’s history of being overturned by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. For example, an 11th Circuit panel in April reversed his ruling against other Florida voting restrictions. The panel split 2-1, with Republican appointees in the majority and a Democratic appointee in dissent.
That doesn’t mean Walker’s latest voting rights ruling will necessarily be struck down, but it’s an open question whether it will stand.
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