United States Ninth Circuit

In a Voting Rights Act (VRA) action by minority citizens of Washington state who lost their right to vote pursuant to the state's felon disenfranchisement provision, summary judgment for defendants is reversed where: 1) plaintiffs had standing because a decision invalidating Washington's felon disenfranchisement provision would redress plaintiffs' injury in that it would restore their right to vote; 2) a failure to show that a state had a history of discriminatory voting practices did not negate a showing under the VRA that the current voting practice at issue was discriminatory; and 3) plaintiffs demonstrated that racial minorities were overrepresented in the felon population based upon factors that could not be explained by non-racial reasons.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/08/2008
• Decided 01/05/2010
• Published 01/05/2010

Judges

• Before: STEPHEN REINHARDT, A. WALLACE TASHIMA, and M. MARGARET McKEOWN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Ryan P. Haygood, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., New York, NY, for the plaintiffs-appellants., Peter A. Danelo, Heller Ehrman, Seattle, WA, for the amici curiae American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Washington., Juan Cartagena, New York, NY, for the amicus curiae Community Service Society., Sam Hirsch, Jenner & Block, Washington, DC, for the amici curiae National Black Police Association, National Latino Officers Association of America, and Zachary W. Carter, et al., eight prominent former state and federal law-enforcement officials., Derek S. Tarson, Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, NY, for the amici curiae Alfred Blumstein, et al., 23 leading criminologists.


• For Appellees:
  
• Carol Murphy, Deputy Solicitor General, Olympia, WA, for the defendants-appellees.