Muntaqim v. Coombe

• Decision Date: 01 October 2004
• Docket Number: No. 01-7260.,01-7260.
• Citation: 385 F.3d 793
• Parties: Jalil Abdul MUNTAQIM, a/k/a Anthony Bottom, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Phillip COOMBE; Anthony Annucci; Louis F. Mann, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

385 F.3d 793 Jalil Abdul MUNTAQIM, a/k/a Anthony Bottom, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Phillip COOMBE; Anthony Annucci; Louis F. Mann, Defendant-Appellee. No. 01-7260. United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. October 1, 2004.

Jonathan William Rauchway, Esq., Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Julie Mathy Sheridan, Esq., Albany, NY, Nancy Northup, Esq., New York, NY, Richard J. Freshour, Esq., Albany, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.

Page 794

At the request of a judge, the court sua sponte conducted a poll as to whether to rehear this case in banc. The suggestion did not garner support from a majority of the active judges on the court, and has therefore failed.

JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge, concurring.

The question presented in this case should not be confused with the more frequently debated question whether former felons should lose their right to vote for a time or even permanently. The issue presented here is whether New York Election Law § 5-106-which disenfranchises persons currently in prison or on parole-can be challenged under the Voting Rights Act. This presents a significantly narrower legal and policy issue. See Developments in the Law: One Person, No Vote: The Laws of Felon Disenfranchisement, 115 Harv. L.Rev.1939, 1942-43 (2002) (noting that two states grant prisoners the franchise; sixteen states disenfranchise felons during the incarceration period only; four states, including New York and Connecticut, disenfranchise those incarcerated or on parole, but not those on probation; and twenty-eight states disenfranchise those incarcerated, on parole, or on probation, of which eight permanently disenfranchise those convicted of felonies).

I note also that the New York law here in question dates to 1829 in its original form, more than thirty years before the Civil War. See 1 N.Y.Rev.Stat. ch. 6, tit. 1, § 3 (1829) ("No person who shall have been convicted within this state, of an infamous crime, at any time previous to an election, shall be permitted to vote thereat; unless he shall have been pardoned by the executive, and by the terms of such pardon restored to all the rights of a citizen."); see also N.Y. Const. Art. 2, § 2 (1829) ("Laws may be passed, excluding from the right of suffrage, persons who have been, or may be, convicted of infamous crimes."). There is no claim in this action that the statute was enacted with any racially discriminatory intent, but rather that the statute "violates the Voting Rights Act because it has...