upheld a state law dating back to 1890 that permanently prevents Mississippians from voting if they have been convicted of a list of 22 criminal categories, encompassing about 100 specific crimes, that include timber larceny, bigamy, and writing a bad check. The opinion overturns the ruling of a three-judge panel on the Fifth Circuit from August 2023 which invalidated Mississippi’s law, saying that it violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

…Judge Edith Jones, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, said that the earlier court decision “would thwart the ability of the State’s legislature and citizens to determine their voting qualifications, and would require federal courts overtly to make legislative choices that, in our federal system, belong at the State level.”

The law was adopted in 1890 as part of a new state constitution that was specifically designed to uphold white supremacy. “Let us tell the truth if it bursts the bottom of the Universe,” Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Solomon S. Calhoon said at the constitutional convention in Jackson. “We came here to exclude the Negro. Nothing short of this will answer.”