When his voice is removed, the laws he is held subject to lose all rationality, especially in a democracy. E.B. White, in response to the Nuremberg trials, said something akin to "If a man hangs, it does not spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him" (paraphrase mine). This was as true of these trails of Nazi war criminals as it is of our citizen felons. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the right to "effective remedy" by the "national tribunals" (UN.org). By denying felons the right to vote, their access to "effective remedy" is essentially non-existent. In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article Two, Section three of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also insists that all people are entitled to a redress of any perceived rights violations through appropriate legal channels (HRCR.org). The international consensus seems to be that no matter what, people ought to be allowed a voice in their government. It is...
Eugene V. Debs famously said, "while there is a soul in prison, I am not free" (EDF). Though this might be going a bit far, certainly our nation is not free as long as voting powers are limited.
The right to vote is one of the fundamental rights of every American as entrenched in the U.S. Constitution. However, millions of Americans have been stripped of this right with many being denied this right for the rest of their lives. One of the groups that have been stripped of the right to vote is convicted felons. Most of the existing state laws bar convicted felons from voting even after
Fundamental Human Rights and Voting Rights for the Incarcerated One of the fundamental human rights according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is that of access to the vote. Arguably, the right to have self-determination is critical, and without such a right, equality of treatment is impossible to realize. Politicians will have no incentive to pass laws to protect the rights of groups whose opinion they are
Introduction Voter turnout in the United States changes from state to state. An excellent example to show how this variation occurs is the 2012 presidential election, where there were 45% voter turnout in Hawaiians and 76% Minnesotans. Many different factors determine the number of people who cast ballots (Larocca & Klemanski, 2011). According to Brenna Center (2020), lawmakers in 29 states have proposed bills that would encourage more voting. The bills
One hypothesis is that many African-Americans yielded to the intimidation of the time and simply did not want to risk their safety and the safety of their families. 6. Poll Taxes A poll tax is a tax of a fixed amount charged each person to register to vote. (Webster's New World Law Dictionary.) as discussed previously, poll taxes were outlawed by the Twenty First Amendment. The practical effect of poll taxes
American Democracy Voter Turnout in 1988 American Presidential Election: Democracy is for the people and by the people and it can be successful if people participate effectively in electing their representatives. In 1988, presidential elections were held in United States of America. Statistics shows that voter turnout for this presidential election was very low. Voter turnout was as low as 50.1%. In spite of an increasing trend of voter turnouts in the
The decision went further to suggest that, "even if possession were to be allowed for other reasons, any law regulating the use of firearms would have to be "unreasonable or inappropriate" to violate the Second Amendment." (Oyez Project, 2008). Had the decision gone the other way, gun rights activists and gun owners would have likely felt as though their constitutional rights were under attack. The District of Columbia v. Heller
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now