I had speculated in my mind that Justice Clarence Thomas might take over the late Justice Antony Scalia’s role of asking the most conservative questions, and he has. Justice Thomas actually had the most conservative voting record on the court. The question he raised opens doors in two directions. He questioned whether the Second Amendment was being observed by barring people jailed for minor offenses from owning guns for the rest of their lives. Actually, the offense was domestic violence, and many people would not consider this minor in the need to protect spouses and children.
In any case, from the second amendment viewpoint, his assumed stance could be applied to ending the need for background checks when buying guns. After all, if you show up to buy a gun in person, then you are obviously not in prison. That means that you have either not committed a crime, or you have served your time. In either case, Justice Thomas is implying that you should not be prevented from buying guns and ammo. What if you are being sought for a crime, but have not yet been caught?
The other door that may have been opened is that of restoring voting rights to those having been convicted of felonies, and having served their time. Clearly, there may be quite a difference between those having committed minor crimes and those having committed felonies. But for a lot of prisoners convicted of drug offenses, the differences is sometimes highly racial in sentencing.
The laws for removing voting rights for felons are state laws, and it is not clear that the court would decide to supersede States Rights.
The following data is from the Huffington Post reporting on The Sentencing Project survey., and from the survey itself, in 2010.
In detail, 7.7% of adult black males have lost voting rights. 1.8% of the rest of Americans have lost voting rights. The total of disenfranchised Americans is 5.85 million, or 2.5%. Four million of those have already been released from jail. More than 3 million of those banned come from six Southern states where more than 7% of the adult population is disenfranchised: Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. Clearly this is part of a comprehensive plan to limit the number of blacks who can vote. The new voter ID laws are also part of this plan in Southern states.
In 11 states, the loss of voting rights is for their lifetime. In 35 states, rights are restored after parole is over. 2 states allow prisoners to vote.
The disenfranchised rate for black men in four states with lifetime bans is quite high. Florida is 23%, Virginia is 20%, and Kentucky is 22%.
California restricts inmates and parolees. In California, the disenfranchisement rate is 1.00%.
I leave it for the reader to decide if it might be more dangerous for ex-prisoners to vote, or to buy guns.
