Opinion ID: 147347
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conditioning Restoration of the Right to Vote upon Payment of Fines and Restitution

Text: The three Coronado plaintiffs who have only one felony conviction (Coronado, Garza, and Rubio) also challenge Arizona's scheme for automatically restoring the right to vote to one-time felons who complete their sentences and pay any fines or restitution imposed against them. See Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-912(A). They argue that requiring felons to pay any money owed under the terms of their sentences violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the bar against poll taxes in the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, the Privileges or Immunities Clauses in both federal and state constitutions, and the free and equal elections provision in Article II, § 21 of the Arizona Constitution. We address each of these claims. At the outset, we note two important points. First, plaintiffs acknowledge that, once taken away the right [to vote] does not have to be restored. Coronado Br. at 15. That is, once a felon is properly disenfranchised a state is at liberty to keep him in that status indefinitely and never revisit that determination. See Richardson, 418 U.S. at 26-27, 94 S.Ct. 2655 (upholding California's scheme disenfranchising felons, including those who had completed the entirety of their sentences). But plaintiffs argue that once a state adopts a scheme to restore this fundamental right, it may not require satisfaction of an unconstitutional condition. Id. Second, no plaintiff alleges that he is indigent, so to the extent that fact might affect the analysis, we explicitly do not address challenges based on an individual's indigent status. All we know from the allegations contained in the plaintiffs' complaint is that each of them failed to pay obligations owed under the terms of his criminal sentence. We begin with the equal protection claim. Plaintiffs' argument is that they have been deprived of the fundamental right to vote and that we are therefore required to review Arizona's scheme for restoring the voting rights of felons under a strict scrutiny standard. But they cannot complain about their loss of a fundamental right to vote because felon disenfranchisement is explicitly permitted under the terms of Richardson, 418 U.S. at 55, 94 S.Ct. 2655. What plaintiffs are really complaining about is the denial of the statutory benefit of re-enfranchisement that Arizona confers upon certain felons. This is not a fundamental right; it is a mere benefit that (as plaintiffs admit) Arizona can choose to withhold entirely. Therefore, we do not apply strict scrutiny as we would if plaintiffs were complaining about the deprivation of a fundamental right. Even a statutory benefit can run afoul of the Equal Protection Clause, though, if it confers rights in a discriminatory manner or distinguishes between groups in a manner that is not rationally related to a legitimate state interest. See Fields v. Palmdale School Dist., 427 F.3d 1197, 1209 (9th Cir.2005) ([G]overnment actions that do not affect fundamental rights or liberty interests and do not involve suspect classifications will be upheld if it they are rationally related to a legitimate state interest.). For instance, a state could not choose to re-enfranchise voters of only one particular race, see Hunter, 471 U.S. at 233, 105 S.Ct. 1916, or re-enfranchise only those felons who are more than six-feet tall. Cf. Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U.S. 1, 11, 112 S.Ct. 2326, 120 L.Ed.2d 1 (1992) ([T]he Equal Protection Clause is satisfied so long as there is a plausible policy reason for the classification... and the relationship of the classification to its goal is not so attenuated as to render the distinction arbitrary or irrational. (citations omitted)). We have little trouble concluding that Arizona has a rational basis for restoring voting rights only to those felons who have completed the terms of their sentences, which includes the payment of any fines or restitution orders. Just as States might reasonably conclude that perpetrators of serious crimes should not take part in electing government officials, so too might it rationally conclude that only those who have satisfied their debts to society through fulfilling the terms of a criminal sentence are entitled to restoration of their voting rights. See Madison v. State, 161 Wash.2d 85, 163 P.3d 757, 771 (2007); see also Owens v. Barnes, 711 F.2d 25, 27-28 (3d Cir. 1983) (scheme restoring voting rights to unincarcerated felons satisfies rational basis review). Perhaps withholding voting rights from those who are truly unable to pay their criminal fines due to indigency would not pass this rational basis test, but we do not address that possibility because no plaintiff in this case has alleged that he is indigent. Plaintiffs' Twenty-Fourth Amendment claim fares no better. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment provides: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. U.S. Const. amend. XXIV. Plaintiffs' right to vote was not abridged because they failed to pay a poll tax; it was abridged because they were convicted of felonies. Having lost their right to vote, they now have no cognizable Twenty-Fourth Amendment claim until their voting rights are restored. That restoration of their voting rights requires them to pay all debts owed under their criminal sentences does not transform their criminal fines into poll taxes. Plaintiffs next rely on the Privileges or Immunities Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Assuming for the sake of argument that the right of suffrage is one of the privileges or immunities protected by this clause, contra Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. 162, 88 U.S. 162, 171, 177, 22 L.Ed. 627 (1874), plaintiffs' argument fails under the exact same rationale adopted by the Supreme Court in Richardson: Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which includes both the Equal Protection and Privileges or Immunities Clauses, could not have been meant to bar outright a form of disenfranchisement which was expressly exempted from the less drastic sanction of reduced representation which § 2 imposed for other forms of disenfranchisement. 418 U.S. at 55, 94 S.Ct. 2655. Plaintiffs' argument based on the Arizona Constitution's Privileges or Immunities Clause fails for the same reason. See Ariz. Const. art. II, § 13 (No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations.). The Arizona Supreme Court has held that this clause provides the same benefits as its federal counterpart, Standhardt v. Super. Ct. ex rel. County of Maricopa, 206 Ariz. 276, 77 P.3d 451, 464 n. 19 (2003), and plaintiffs acknowledge that its protections do not extend beyond those provided in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Coronado Br. at 35. Because the Fourteenth Amendment cannot be read to prohibit Arizona's felon disenfranchisement scheme, neither can this provision of the Arizona Constitution. Finally, we reject plaintiffs' argument that requiring them to pay off their criminal fines and restitution orders violates the Arizona Constitution's Free and Equal Elections Clause. Ariz. Const. art. II, § 21 (All elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.). The Arizona Constitution expressly permits felon disenfranchisement, see Ariz. Const. art. VII, § 2, and lest there be a conflict between these two constitutional provisions, the best reading of the Free and Equal Elections Clause is that it does not apply to disenfranchised felons, but only to those who are otherwise qualified to vote. See Arizona ex rel. Nelson v. Jordan, 104 Ariz. 193, 450 P.2d 383, 386 (1969) (when separate parts of a constitution are seemingly in conflict, it is the duty of the court to harmonize both so that the constitution is a consistent workable whole). And as between felons, Arizona's statutory scheme restoring voting rights applies equally to all. All felons must complete the terms of their sentences before their voting rights are restored. Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-912(A).