Abstract
By providing a comprehensive history of felon disenfranchisement in the United States, a state-by-state comparison of felon disenfranchisement statutes, and an explanation of how legal moralism functions in American jurisprudence, this Note seeks to explain why felon disenfranchisement survives in modern law. Analyzed through the lens of legal moralism, it will become evident that such laws persist today as a means of labelling all criminal conduct rising to the level of a felony as inherently immoral. It is dangerous to strip the right to vote from those who do not conform to a society’s definition of morality.
Keywords
felon disenfranchisement, right to vote, suffrage, legal moralism