National: Sotomayor on Disenfranchisement

Based on many decisions by U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a New York Times op-ed column states that the judge's decisions have ultimately been "color blind." Making mention of her ruling in Hayden v. Pataki, where Sotomayor concluded that felon disenfranchisement laws are discriminatory and violate the Voting Rights Act, Tom Goldstein, a founder of the Scotusblog Web site, states that her decisions in cases like these "hardly make her an extremist."

The United State's varied practice of disenfranchising individuals with felony offenses is the wrong way to dole out punishment, according to an Atlantic blog. "Crime costs this country an estimated $1.4 trillion annually," the article states. "Unless disenfranchisement helps reduce that number - and the evidence suggests that it does the opposite - then denying prisoners the vote in order to minutely heighten the virtue of the voting pool is a bad trade."
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