The Nebraska Voting Rights Restoration Coalition was ready for July 19. A new state law, Legislative Bill 20, would take effect that day, instantly granting voting rights to some 7,000 people with past felony convictions.
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[But] two Republican elected officials in Nebraska—Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Secretary of State Bob Evnen—halted implementation of the new law, shutting down new registrations for people with past felonies and throwing into question the voting rights of tens of thousands of other Nebraskans who, until last month, were legally, unambiguously eligible to vote.
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On July 17, less than 48 hours before LB 20 was to take effect, Hilgers issued an advisory opinion stating that the new law was unconstitutional. But Hilgers didn’t stop there; he also declared unconstitutional a 2005 reform law ending lifetime disenfranchisement of anyone convicted of any felony; the 2005 law, Legislative Bill 53, allowed Nebraskans to vote two years after completing their sentences, a waiting period that LB 20 was set to eliminate.
Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240828114456/https://boltsmag.org/nebraska-voting-rights-restoration/
I’ve had it up to here with these fucking activist judges who think they can unilaterally rewrite laws.
True, but in this case, it was an AG’s opinion (that doesn’t hold legal weight) and another Republican who just use that as a legal argument to not do something that both parties agreed to. Even the previous Republican AG for Nebraska says this issue is stupid and LB 20 should go ahead.
To me what’s most frustrating/disturbing isn’t that they think they can rewrite laws, people think they can cure diseases with rocks, but that in a lot of ways they effectively can.