August, 03 2020, 12:00am EDT
Groups Urge Federal Appeals Court to Affirm Wealth-Based Barriers to Voting are Unconstitutional
Broad Coalition Filed Briefs Today Arguing Florida Law Unconstitutionally Bars Hundreds of Thousands of Floridians From Voting Solely Because They Lack Enough Money
ATLANTA
Voting rights advocates today urged a federal appeals court to uphold a decision that concluded a Florida law that created wealth-based hurdles to voting is unconstitutional.
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law are among the groups challenging the law, which was struck down by a federal district judge, restoring voting rights to hundreds of thousands of Floridians with past felony convictions.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appealed, however, and the lower court ruling was placed on hold until the full Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals hears the case on August 18.
The groups today filed their appeals court brief. Find it here: https://www.aclufl.org/en/Jones-v-DeSantis-Appellees-Brief-Gruver-McCoy-...
Plaintiffs also received broad support from amici curiae -- "friends-of-the-court" -- from across the political spectrum, who filed briefs today supporting the common-sense position that people should not have to pay to vote.
Amici include 19 states (Illinois, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington) and the District of Columbia; the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, an organization of returning citizens who sponsored Amendment 4; a group of former and current election officials and administrators; former Department of Justice attorneys; professors and voting rights scholars; organizations such as R Street and the Cato Institute; and a number of government and criminal justice reform organizations.
At issue is the 2019 law, Senate Bill 7066, which undermined Floridians' overwhelming 2018 passage of Amendment 4 by making voting contingent on returning citizens' ability to pay all legal financial obligations prior to being able to register and vote.
In May 2020, the federal court ruled the law violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of wealth. It also held that requiring the payment of costs and fees violates the 24th Amendment -- which prohibits poll taxes -- and violates due process principles and the National Voter Registration Act. If the appeals court affirms the lower court's injunction, it may enable hundreds of thousands of returning citizens to vote in the November election.
The following comment is from:
Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Voting Rights Project: "This law is a modern-day poll tax, and the courts have repeatedly ruled it unconstitutional. People from all across the political spectrum recognize it is wrong to force Americans to pay to vote. We remain hopeful the appeals court will strike down this law once and for all."
Daniel Tilley, legal director of the ACLU of Florida: "Conditioning enfranchisement on the ability to pay is simply unconstitutional. Governor DeSantis has gone out of his way to bar hundreds of thousands of people from voting. His pay-to-vote scheme is a disgraceful assault on our democracy."
Leah Aden, deputy director of litigation at NAACP LDF: "The only requirement that stands in the way of hundreds of thousands of returning citizens, disproportionately Black, being able to register and vote in Florida is money. Florida implemented SB7066 knowing returning citizens face this economic barrier and the state lacks any system to inform people of what, if anything, they are required to pay-to-vote. This turns our Constitution on its head, as does Florida's abhorrent position that the Constitution doesn't apply to returning citizens. Together, we will persist in fighting to realize Amendment 4's promise and eliminate SB7066's pay-to-vote scheme."
Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director of the Voting Rights and Election program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU: "Florida's pay-to-vote system is unconstitutional and an affront to our nation's democratic principles. What's worse, the state is entirely incapable of administering the system, leaving prospective voters and elections officials alike confused about who is eligible. We hope the appellate court will uphold the trial court's decision to clear the way for hundreds of thousands to register and vote."
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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'Unlawful and Catastrophic': IDF Begins Forced Evacuation of Rafah
The head of one humanitarian group called the Israeli military's directives "a serious violation of international law."
May 06, 2024
Israel's army on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an imminent military assault on the area, terrifying families who have been forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza city in recent months and intensifying warnings of a bloodbath.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets over Rafah ordering some of its 1.4 million residents to move to a strip along Gaza's coast, a signal that a long-feared ground assault on the overcrowded city is set to begin in the face of vocal opposition from the international community and humanitarian organizations.
The U.S., Israel's top arms supplier, has said it would oppose a Rafah assault without a credible plan to evacuate civilians from the city. Humanitarian groups and analysts have said such a plan is impossible because there is no genuinely safe place for Gazans to go. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked so-called "safe zones" and designated routes Palestinians have used to flee in compliance with past IDF orders.
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Israel
reportedly notified the U.S. of the evacuation orders overnight, and CIA Director William Burns is set to arrive in Israel on Monday to discuss the operation in Rafah, a city along Gaza's border with Egypt that has become a critical point of entry for humanitarian aid. The new evacuation orders, expected to be just the first round of directives, include Rafah's largest medical facility.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main relief agency in Gaza, said in response to the IDF's orders that it would not leave Rafah.
"An Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths. The consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people," the organization wrote in a social media post. "UNRWA is not evacuating: The agency will maintain a presence in Rafah as long as possible and will continue providing lifesaving aid to people."
BREAKING: #Israel drops leaflets over #Rafah southern #Gaza, ordering inhabitants of eastern Rafah to immediately move to Al Mawasi (a desolate strip along the Gaza coast), cautioning them from moving to north Gaza or towards its southern and eastern perimeter fence. pic.twitter.com/tBum9ULewF
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) May 6, 2024
The far-right Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been threatening a ground invasion of Rafah for months, characterizing the city as Hamas' last major stronghold. Avichay Adraee, an IDF lieutenant colonel, said Monday that the Israeli military would use "extreme force" in the evacuation areas and warned that "anyone who is close to terrorist organizations puts his life and the life of his family at risk."
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), around 600,000 children are currently sheltering in the city, including many who have been displaced multiple times since Israel's assault began in October following a Hamas-led attack.
"More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said Monday. "Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large-scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened.”
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, called the IDF's evacuation push in Rafah "unlawful and catastrophic."
"There's nowhere safe to go in Gaza," Shakir added. "The international community should act to prevent further atrocities."
The IDF began issuing its evacuation orders in Rafah a day after the Netanyahu government voted to shut downAl Jazeera's operations in the country, a brazen attack on press freedom.
"The fact that Israel banned
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Brussels police said 132 activists—some of whom glued themselves to the ground—were arrested.
"This police behavior toward nonviolent protesters exercising their freedom of assembly is illegal and authoritarian," Extinction Rebellion Belgium said in a statement Saturday.
"We call on the police to exercise restraint and respect the right to demonstrate peacefully and without violence," the group added.
The activists are calling on European governments to stop subsidizing fossil fuels amid a worsening planetary crisis. They're also demanding the declaration of a climate emergency.
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"Rather than trying to silence reporting on its atrocities in Gaza, the Israeli government should stop committing them," said one observer.
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The Jerusalem offices of Al Jazeera were raided Sunday after Israel's far-right Cabinet banned the Qatar-based satellite news network—the sole international media outlet providing 24/7 live coverage from Gaza—from operating in the country.
"If you're watching this… then Al Jazeera has been banned in Israel," correspondent Imran Khan said in a pre-recorded report from occupied East Jerusalem preempting the Israeli Cabinet's unanimous vote to shutter the network.
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"The time has come to eject Hamas' mouthpiece from our country," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address.
Ofir Gendelman, Netanyahu's Arab media spokesperson, said Sunday that the closure would be "implemented immediately."
Gendelman said that the network's "broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel's correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera's websites will be blocked on the internet."
In a statement, Al Jazeera vowed to "pursue all available legal channels through international legal institutions in its quest to protect both its rights and journalists, as well as the public's right to information."
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The New York-based Foreign Press Association issued a statement slamming the move and saying it "should be a cause for concern for all supporters of a free press."
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Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir called the order "an assault on freedom of the press."
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Al Jazeera is the only international news network providing nonstop on-the-ground coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, often being the first to report Israeli atrocities in what many experts worldwide say is a genocidal campaign in the besieged, starving strip.
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