On August 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a monumental decision in Hopkins v. Hosemann, overturning Mississippi’s criminal disenfranchisement laws. The Court held that the law was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The decision overturns Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban for people with disqualifying felony convictions who have completed their sentences and restores the right to vote for tens of thousands of Mississippians. The Court noted that, “Mississippi stands as an outlier among its sister states, bucking a clear and consistent trend in our Nation against permanent disenfranchisement.” The Court said, “Mississippi denies this precious right to a large class of its citizens, automatically, mechanically, and with no thought given to whether it is proportionate as punishment for an amorphous and partial list of crimes.”
In its decision, the panel of the Court, voting 2-1, ruled that, “By severing former offenders from the body politic forever, Section 241 [of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890] ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the term their culpability requires, and serves no protective function to society. It is thus a cruel and unusual punishment.” The Court ruled that Section 241 is unconstitutional and enjoined Mississippi’s Secretary of State from enforcing the provision against the plaintiffs and the class they represent.
Simpson Thacher and Southern Poverty Law Center are counsel to plaintiffs. The class action lawsuit was filed on March 27, 2018.
The decision was highlighted by publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters here and here, Associated Press, MPB Think Radio’s Mississippi Edition, 16 WAPT News, ABC News, Bloomberg Law, Michigan Chronicle, Mississippi Today, Reckon, The Guardian, The Hill andThe United Business Journal.
The Simpson Thacher team included Jonathan Youngwood, Janet Gochman and Nihara Choudhri. Isaac Rethy also played a critical role over the course of this case.