Supreme Court lets stand ban on voting by felons
By Guy Taylor
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 15, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a challenge to Florida's ban on voting rights for felons, letting stand a 137-year-old law that applies to both inmates and ex-convicts.

    The justices offered no comment in deciding not to review the ban, similar versions of which apply in every state, except Maine and Vermont.
 

    In a busy day for the court, the justices also said they will not review a North Carolina case involving the constitutionality of an "In God We Trust" engraving on a government building.
 

    The rejection lets stand a lower court ruling to permit the engraving for "historical" reasons, and comes almost five months after the justices split over the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays on government property.
 

    In separate 5-4 rulings in June, the justices upheld the legality of such displays, but said they should be scrutinized case by case to prevent governmental promotion of religion. At the time, the court ruled that a 6-foot-tall monument at the Texas Capitol was permissible because of its historical context, but that Commandment postings at two Kentucky courthouses were not because their purpose was to "advance religion."
 

    In other Supreme Court action yesterday:
 

    •The justices ruled 6-2 in a Maryland case that parents seeking changes to their child's special-education program must prove during a hearing before an administrative law judge that the program is inadequate. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recused himself from the ruling.