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Carlton Fields Attorney D. Matthew Allen Quoted in The Washington Times Analyzing Voting Rights Opinion
February 19, 2020
Carlton Fields attorney D. Matthew Allen was quoted in The Washington Times’ coverage of a voting rights ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The appellate court ruled that a voter-approved Florida law does not require felons who have completed prison sentences to pay all fines, restitutions, and fees before their voting rights can be restored. The ruling overturned a previous decision by the Florida Supreme Court, on which Allen published an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times opining that the Florida Supreme Court correctly interpreted the law.
 
Allen told The Washington Times: “It seems to me that the Eleventh Circuit panel improperly used the concept of severability to change the meaning of Amendment 4. It could have simply stricken the entire Amendment as unconstitutional. I don’t see how it was empowered to modify what the Florida Supreme Court definitely declared was the plain meaning of Amendment 4 — that only criminals who have paid their entire debt to society can have their voting rights restored — as it did. On first reaction, this result therefore seems to me to be policy-oriented.”
 
READ: The Washington Times, “Florida’s Amendment 4 – giving former felons voting rights – upheld by U.S. appeals court”
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