Appeals Court gives Minnesota group leeway to discourage voting by nonincarcerated felons
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A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Minnesota officials can’t enforce a state law against election disinformation, siding with a group speaking out on a law that allows felons to vote if they’re not incarcerated.
The decision by a three-judge panel is a win for the conservative Minnesota Voters Alliance. The group has opposed a relatively new state law that restored voting rights to people who are on probation or supervised release for felony convictions.
Leaders with the alliance said they risked running afoul of a separate law meant to curb known disinformation that is designed to impede voting or mislead about voter eligibility within two months of an election.
In the ruling, Appeals Judge David Stras said the “First Amendment protects speech on a matter of public concern, like these statements, whether they are correct or not.”
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Stras, a former Minnesota Supreme Court justice, goes on to say the state regulation went too far and there were other options for elections officials to get correct information out there.
“It overreaches because at least one speech-promoting alternative exists: counter speech,” Stras wrote for the unified three-judge panel. “Rather than limiting what others say, it could have launched an education campaign consisting of calls, texts, or emails informing them of their rights.”
The way the case got before the federal courts is notable in itself. The group tried first to head off the restoration of voting rights in state court, but that effort was turned back.
So the alliance sued Attorney General Keith Ellison and an Anoka County official in federal court to seek an injunction barring enforcement of the law. A lower-court judge refused to issue one and the alliance appealed.
The appeals court sent the case back to a district court with instruction to put an injunction on the election misinformation law as it applies to the group.
The alliance contends the Minnesota law on felon voting is unconstitutional, an argument that fell short in state courts. It contends it should be able to keep pressing that position without running into trouble with the law restricting false information.
Upper Midwest Law Center attorney Doug Seaton, who represented the voters alliance, said the ruling is an important free speech decision.
“Minnesota did not simply disagree with our client’s position. It tried to attach criminal and civil penalties to one side of a live legal debate,” Seaton said. “The First Amendment does not allow the government to end an argument by threatening prosecution.”
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said the decision and next steps were under review. A message left with the secretary of state was not immediately returned.
