In Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974), the U.S. Supreme negated federal equal protection of the laws for persons disenfranchised on account of criminal conviction. This case forms the bedrock for contemporary state-based voting eligibility rules for system-involved persons as well as for the state-by-state movement to reform it, as exemplified by California’s Prop. 17 (2020) which restored the right to vote to persons on parole. This webinar will carefully analyze the Court’s opinions in Ramirez to uncover the ways in which text and history are implicated in the constitutional interpretation of democratic norms.
Presenters: Alissa Moore (Re-Entry Coordinator) and Eric C. Sapp (Staff Attorney) from Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
