On January 22, U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney, an Obama appointee, issued an opinion in King v O’Bannon, e.d., 3:23cv-408. He ruled that Virginia cannot continue to bar many felons from registering to vote. The basis for the decision is the 1870 act of Congress that readmitted Virginia to the union. The 1870 law said that Virginia was readmitted as a state, only if it promised not to limit voting, except that the bill said Virginia could continue to disenfranchise persons who had committed a felony “at common law.”
Since then, Virginia has barred all persons who committed a felony from registering to vote. The list of “felonies at common law” back in 1870 only included about a dozen crimes. Of course, nowadays there are many more felonies.
The plaintiffs are voters who had been disenfranchised because they violated certain drug laws, laws which did not exist in 1870. Therefore, they and similar members of a class may now register to vote. It is not known if the state will appeal. See this news story.
