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Rights Restoration
Rights restoration is the process of restoring voting rights to people with prior felony convictions who lost their voting rights under felony disenfranchisement. It may also refer to additional civil rights that are taken away upon conviction, such as holding public office and serving on a jury. In the United States, the voting rights of people convicted of a felony vary from state to state. In most states, the right to vote is automatically or eventually restored upon the completion of the sentence. In three states – Florida, Kentucky and Iowa – all individuals convicted of felonies lose their voting rights permanently, and they must directly petition the government to get them back. Critics of these voting prohibitions argue that voting is an unalienable right and should not be taken away from citizens who have finished their prison terms. Background Compared to other nations, the United States is very strict with regard to denying the right to vote to people with prior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voting Rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election. The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called ''full suffrage''. In most democracies, eligible voters can vote in elections of representatives. Voting on issues by referendum may also be available. For example, in Switzerland, this is permitted at all levels of government. In the United States, some states such as California, Washington, and Wisconsin have exercised their shared sovereignty to offer citizens the opportunity to write, propose, and vote on referendums; other states and the federal government have not. Referendums in the United Kingdom are rare. Suffrage is granted to everybody mentally capable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying, and has over 1,800,000 members as of July 2018, with an annual budget of over $300 million. Affiliates of the ACLU are active in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties to be at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of '' amicus curiae'' briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation. In addition to representing persons and organizations in lawsuits, the ACLU lobbies for policy positions that have been established by its board of directors. Current positions of the ACLU include opposing the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African American to hold the position of U.S. attorney general. Born in New York City to a middle class family of Barbadian origin, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia Law School. Following law school, he left New York to work for the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice for 12 years. He next served as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before being appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and subsequently Deputy Attorney General. While U.S. Attorney, he prosecuted Congressman Dan Rostenkowski for corruption charges related to his role in the Congressional Post Office scandal. Following the Clinton administration, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry McAuliffe
Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. McAuliffe was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election. In the 2013 gubernatorial election, after he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, he defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Libertarian Robert Sarvis in the general election. Due to Virginia law barring governors from serving consecutive terms, he was succeeded by his lieutenant governor, Ralph Northam. McAuliffe ran for a non-consecutive second term as governor in the 2021 gubernatorial election but narrowly lost to Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin. Throughout his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judith Browne Dianis
Judith A. Browne Dianis is an American civil rights attorney. She is the executive director of Advancement Project, a liberal nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Background Dianis graduated from the Wharton School of Business and Columbia University School of Law. She was awarded a Skadden Fellowship. She has served as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and as a Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar at Florida State University Law School. Prior to Advancement Project, she was the Managing Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. In 2000, '' Essence Magazine'' named Dianis one of "Thirty Women to Watch". She regularly comments on education, voting rights and race on networks including MSNBC, CNN, and BET. In 2013, she was named one of BET’s “Washington's Most Powerful Women”. History with Advancement Project Attorney Dianis was a part of Advancement Project's inception in 1999, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Race In The United States Criminal Justice System
Race in the United States criminal justice system refers to the unique experiences and disparities in the United States in regard to the policing and prosecuting of various races. There have been different outcomes for different racial groups in convicting and sentencing felons in the United States criminal justice system.United States. Dept. of Justice. 2008. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Prison Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice. Experts and analysts have debated the relative importance of different factors that have led to these disparities. Academic research indicates that the over-representation of some racial minorities in the criminal justice system can in part be explained by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, exposure to poor neighborhoods, poor access to public education, poor access to early childhood education, and exposure to harmful chemicals (such as lead) and pollution. Racial housing segregation has also been linked to racial disparities in c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project is a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy center working for decarceration in the United States and seeking to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The organization produces nonpartisan reports and research for use by state and federal policymakers, administrators, and journalists. History The Sentencing Project grew out of pilot programs established by lawyer Malcolm C. Young in the early 1980s. In 1981, Young became director of a project of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) designed to establish defense-based sentencing advocacy programs. In 1986, Young incorporated The Sentencing Project as an independent organization to continue NLADA's program of training and development work. In the late 1980s, The Sentencing Project became engaged in research and public education on a broad range of criminal justice policy issues, and is primarily known for its work in these areas today. Advocacy The Sentencing Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advancement Project
The Advancement Project is a politically liberal American nonprofit organization that focuses on racial justice issues. The organization has a national office in Washington, D.C., as well as a California-specific office based in Los Angeles. Organization overview The Advancement Project was founded in 1999 by civil rights lawyers in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. The organization is made up of two offices: Advancement Project National Office (based in Washington, D.C.) and Advancement Project California. The executive director of the Advancement Project's national office is Judith Browne Dianis. The executive director of the California-based office is John Kim. The founding co-directors include Advancement Project co-founders Constance L. Rice, Stephen R. English, and Molly Munger. Activities Advancement Project National Office The Advancement Project National Office is known for its opposition to voter ID laws and advocates for automatic voting rights restoration for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Policy Initiative
The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) is a criminal justice oriented American public policy think tank based in Easthampton, Massachusetts. It is a non-profit organization, designated 501(c)(3) by the IRS. It is the "leading public critic" of the United States Census Bureau's practice of counting prisoners as residents of the towns where they are incarcerated, and has conducted research in several states proving that this practice results in distortion of equal representation. The organization produces reports that aim to show the scale of incarceration in the United States. The most well-known of these reports is thWhole Pie report which provides a visual representation of all aspects of incarceration in the United States. It also produces" a report that compares the incarceration rate of every U.S. state to that of nearly every other country on the planet. It also produces research and reports on specific aspects of the criminal legal system, including" " ttps://www.prisonp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FairVote
FairVote, formerly the Center for Voting and Democracy, is a 501(c)(3) organization that advocates electoral reform in the United States. Founded in 1992 as Citizens for Proportional Representation to support the implementation of proportional representation in American elections, the organization in 1993 became the Center for Voting and Democracy and in 2004 changed its name to FairVote to reflect its support of such proposals as instant-runoff voting (IRV), for single and multi-winner elections, a national popular vote for president, a right-to-vote amendment to the Constitution, and universal voter registration. FairVote releases regular publications on the state of the U.S. electoral system, including ''Dubious Democracy'' and ''Monopoly Politics''. Notable members of FairVote's board of directors have included its past chairs, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and former Congressman and 1980 independent presidential candidate John Anderson. About Founding FairVote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disenfranchised
Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. Disfranchisement can also refer to the revocation of power or control of a particular individual, community or being to the natural amenity they have; that is to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, of some privilege or inherent immunity. Disfranchisement may be accomplished explicitly by law or implicitly through requirements applied in a discriminatory fashion, through intimidation, or by placing unreasonable requirements on voters for registration or voting. Based on age Most countries or regions set a minimum voting age, and disenfranchise all citizens younger than this age. The most common voting age is 18, though some countries have minimum voting ages set as young as 16 or as old as 21. Based on residence or ethnicity ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resulted in the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods, to which additional punishments including capital punishment could be added; other crimes were called misdemeanors. Following conviction of a felony in a court of law, a person may be described as a felon or a convicted felon. Some common law countries and jurisdictions no longer classify crimes as felonies or misdemeanors and instead use other distinctions, such as by classifying serious crimes as indictable offences and less serious crimes as summary offences. In the United States, where the felony/misdemeanor distinction is still widely applied, the federal government defines a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year. If punishable b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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