A federal judge ruled Thursday that Virginia's broad felon disenfranchisement policy violates a 150-year-old federal statute designed to protect voting rights during Reconstruction, marking the end of what the court described as a century-long violation of federal law.
U.S. District Judge John Gibney, a Barack Obama appointee, granted an injunction barring Virginia from disenfranchising anyone whose convictions stem from felonies created after 1870, when Congress passed the Virginia Readmission Act. The ruling came in favor of two disenfranchised Virginia voters who challenged the state's policy.
"For well over a century, the Commonwealth of Virginia has disobeyed a federal law designed to protect the right of former enslaved people to vote," Gibney wrote in his opinion. "Nearly one hundred and twenty-five years after Senator Glass pleaded to 'emancipate Virginia' from Black voters, a class of would-be voters appears before this court asking for true emancipation at the commonwealth's ballot boxes."
The Virginia Readmission Act was part of broader Reconstruction-era legislation that established conditions for former Confederate states to rejoin the Union. According to Gibney's ruling, the act only allows southern states to disenfranchise individuals as punishment for participating in rebellion or for committing what were considered common law felonies at the time.
The common law felonies recognized in 1870 were limited to 11 specific crimes: arson, burglary, escaping from prison, larceny, manslaughter, mayhem, murder, rape, robbery, sodomy and suicide. Virginia lawmakers, however, expanded their disenfranchisement net soon after the Reconstruction law passed, creating new categories of felonies that could strip voting rights.
Gibney ruled that the Virginia Readmission Act supersedes any subsequent state constitutions that broadened disenfranchisement beyond the original federal parameters. "If its amended constitution disenfranchises someone for any other reason, the commonwealth violates the act," Gibney wrote. "Any other reading ignores ordinary meaning and contravenes statutory structure."
The commonwealth, under former Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, had argued that the act gave Virginia authority to disenfranchise anyone who commits offenses punishable by death or imprisonment in state prison, including newly created felonies. The state's legal team contended this interpretation aligned with the original statute's language.
Gibney rejected this reading, saying it failed to account for the historical context surrounding the law's passage. He noted that the Virginia Readmission Act followed the Military Readmission Act, which detailed specific conditions that former Confederate states needed to satisfy before Congress would readmit them through individual Readmission Acts.
"The MRA told Virginia not to disenfranchise anyone besides rebels and common-law felons," Gibney wrote. "The Virginia Readmission Act confirmed that Virginia listened." The judge emphasized that Congress sought to ensure that southern states would honor the voting rights gains made during Reconstruction.
The injunctive ruling has immediate practical implications for Virginia voters. It refranchises individuals with convictions for drug offenses and other crimes that weren't considered felonies under 1870 common law. Drug offenses, which form a significant portion of modern felony convictions, were not contemplated in the original Reconstruction-era legislation.
The decision represents a significant shift in Virginia's voting rights landscape. The state has historically maintained one of the nation's most restrictive felon disenfranchisement policies, automatically stripping voting rights from anyone convicted of a felony. Previous governors have used executive clemency powers to restore voting rights to some individuals, but the process remained discretionary and limited.
The ruling's reference to Senator Glass alludes to Carter Glass, a Virginia politician who championed the state's 1902 constitution, which was explicitly designed to restrict Black political participation through various mechanisms including expanded felon disenfranchisement provisions.
Gibney's decision connects historical patterns of voter suppression to contemporary disenfranchisement policies, arguing that Virginia's expanded interpretation of felony disenfranchisement perpetuates violations of federal Reconstruction protections.
The state may appeal the decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginia's current Democratic leadership, including Governor Glenn Youngkin and newly elected Attorney General, will determine the commonwealth's response to the ruling.
The case highlights ongoing tensions between state criminal justice policies and federal voting rights protections established during Reconstruction. Legal experts note that similar challenges could emerge in other former Confederate states with broad felon disenfranchisement policies.
The ruling affects not only current disenfranchised voters but also establishes precedent for future cases involving the intersection of Reconstruction-era federal law and modern state voting restrictions. The decision requires Virginia to reassess its entire approach to felon disenfranchisement based on 150-year-old federal statutory requirements rather than subsequent state constitutional amendments.