No. 24-560

Dennis Hopkins, et al. v. Michael Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2024-11-19
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Amici (1)Relisted (2) Experienced Counsel
Tags: constitutional-law eighth-amendment equal-protection felony-disenfranchisement fourteenth-amendment voting-rights
Key Terms:
DueProcess Punishment JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2025-01-24 (distributed 2 times)
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Does Mississippi's lifetime felony disenfranchisement scheme violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

question presented is: Does Section 241’s lifetime disenfranchisement of individuals who have completed their sentences for past felony convictions violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments”? 2. In Richardson v. Ramirez, this Court held that lifetime felony disenfranchisement laws are exempt from strict scrutiny review under the Equal Protection Clause because Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides an “affirmative sanction” for such laws. 418 U.S. 24, 54 (1974). Section 2 provides that a State’s representatives in Congress are reduced when the right to vote “is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime.” Under the last antecedent rule, the phrase “except for participation in rebellion, or other crime” in Section 2 u modifies only the phrase “or in any way abridged”—which refers to a temporary restriction on the right to vote—and does not reach the phrase “is denied.” This issue was not presented to the Richardson Court, nor considered by it. The second question presented is: Does Section 2’s “affirmative sanction” for and safe harbor from strict scrutiny review apply only to laws that temporarily abridge the right to vote based on “participation in rebellion, or other crime”, and not to laws like Section 241 that permanently deny the right to vote to individuals who have completed their sentences for past felony convictions?

Docket Entries

2025-01-27
Petition DENIED.
2025-01-21
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/24/2025.
2025-01-13
Rescheduled.
2024-12-31
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/17/2025.
2024-12-27
Reply of Dennis Hopkins, et al. submitted.
2024-12-27
2024-12-19
Amicus brief of American Probation and Parole Association submitted.
2024-12-19
Brief amicus curiae of American Probation and Parole Association filed.
2024-12-13
Brief of Michael Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State in opposition submitted.
2024-12-13
Brief of respondent Michael Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State in opposition filed.
2024-12-13
Brief of respondent Michael Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State, in opposition filed.
2024-11-15
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 19, 2024)
2024-09-18
Application (24A277) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until November 15, 2024.
2024-09-16
Application (24A277) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from October 16, 2024 to November 15, 2024, submitted to Justice Alito.

Attorneys

American Probation and Parole Association
Louis P. PetrichBallard Spahr LLP, Amicus
Dennis Hopkins, et al.
Jonathan K. YoungwoodSimpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, Petitioner
Michael Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State
Scott Grant StewartMississippi Attorney General's Office, Respondent