Judge restores voting rights for 4 tangled in Tennessee gun rights mandate but uncertainty remains

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge has ruled that four people can’t be denied their voting rights because their specific felony offenses bar them from having a gun, even under a state directive that added gun rights as a prerequisite to casting a ballot again.

But the four people requesting their voting rights back aren’t guaranteed to have them restored. Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton’s ruling last week grants the four petitions to get back full rights of citizenship, including voting, and the Nashville jurist excluded gun rights because their offenses spurred permanent gun bans.

However, if someone can’t get their gun rights back because an offense disqualifies it, there is state case law that says they can still get their voting rights and other citizenship rights back, she ruled.

Earlier this year, Tennessee began requiring people with a felony conviction to get their right to bear arms back if they want their voting rights restored. The decision further toughened a strict, complicated system of voting rights restoration that had already been the subject of a federal lawsuit for years, leaving some people concerned they would have no shot at voting again because their offenses strip away gun rights for good.

The latest rulings don’t require changes to the state’s system, but the four applicants now need their paperwork processed by state officials who have concluded that restoration of gun rights is necessary for getting back voting rights. It’s unclear how they will treat the court actions.

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Keeda Haynes, an attorney with the nonprofit Free Hearts representing the petitioners, said she hopes the state will side with the judge’s order, but she’s unsure what will happen. In other instances, the state has denied voting rights restoration attempts when a judge has restored citizenship rights but included exceptions for gun rights, she said.

“The fact that you cannot get your gun rights back should not preclude you from being able to register to vote,” Haynes said, as Tennessee’s Oct. 7 voter registration deadline for the November election looms.

Advocates have warned that tying gun and voting rights restorations could permanently disenfranchise many more voters than state law specifies, because felony drug crimes and felonies involving violence prompt a ban on gun rights.

In turn, the judge ruled that “full rights of citizenship” can still be restored even when someone’s gun rights still have to be barred due to restrictions in state law, citing a 2002 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling. She noted that the gun-banning offenses are not among those specified in state law as ineligible for voting rights restoration.

The Nashville district attorney’s office offered similar legal reasoning in filings in the cases.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee secretary of state’s office declined to comment on the ruling because of ongoing litigation.

A federal lawsuit filed in 2020 argued that the state has failed to make clear which officials can sign the necessary forms, provides no criteria for denial and offers no avenue for appeal, among other criticisms. Now it challenges the new restrictions as well.

The changes were established in July 2023. At the time, election officials interpreted a different state Supreme Court ruling that year as requiring people convicted of felonies to get their full citizenship rights restored by a judge, or show they were pardoned, before they could apply for reinstated voting rights. In January, the elections office confirmed that gun rights were among those required.

Voting rights advocates have argued that the state’s legal interpretations have been way off base.

Tennessee had established a process under a 2006 law for people convicted of a felony to petition for voting rights restoration. It allows them to seek restoration if they can show they have served their sentences and do not owe outstanding court costs or child support. An applicant wouldn’t have to go to court or get a governor’s pardon.

Now, applicants must get their citizenship rights back in court or through a pardon by a president, governor or other high-level official, then complete the old process.

Expungement offers a separate path to restore voting rights, but many felonies are ineligible.

Earlier this year, the Republican supermajority Legislature decided against making changes to let people go through voting rights restoration without also seeking their gun rights back. They also did not pass the elections office’s tougher rules into state law. Instead, GOP leaders planned to study citizenship rights issues this summer and propose various changes next year. Lawmakers return in January.

Tennessee has more than 470,000 estimated disenfranchised felons, and they face a convoluted restoration process that is also unavailable for select offenses, according to a report from The Sentencing Project last updated in 2023. The report states that 9% of Tennessee’s voting age population is disenfranchised because of a felony conviction. That’s even higher for African Americans at more than 21%.