DILUTED
Richardson v. Ramirez
418 U.S. 24 (1974) · 1974
The Court found felon disenfranchisement constitutional by reading a Reconstruction-era footnote as a permanent license.
“The exclusion of felons from the vote has an affirmative sanction in §2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, a sanction which was not present in the case of the other restrictions on the franchise which were invalidated in the cases on which respondents rely.”
The Ruling
6–3, opinion by Justice Rehnquist. Three Californians who had completed their sentences and parole challenged the state's lifetime felon disenfranchisement on Equal Protection grounds. The Court held that Section 2 of the 14th Amendment — which reduces a state's congressional representation if it denies the franchise except 'for participation in rebellion, or other crime' — affirmatively authorizes the states to disenfranchise people convicted of crimes, and removes such laws from ordinary Equal Protection scrutiny.
The Personhood Argument Not Made
Richardson is the cleanest doctrinal expression of carceral partial-personhood: it does not say felons may be punished, it says they may be removed from the political community itself, and that the 14th Amendment — the amendment whose entire purpose was to constitute a national personhood floor — silently permits this removal. A clause inserted in 1868 to penalize Confederate states for excluding Black voters became, by 1974, the constitutional license for excluding millions of mostly Black and brown voters from the polity. The personhood transfer is structural: the clause that was meant to expand the franchise is read to authorize its contraction.
The Execution Gap Created
The Sentencing Project's 'Locked Out 2024' report estimates approximately 4 million Americans were barred from voting in the 2024 election under state felony disenfranchisement laws — roughly 1.7% of the voting-age population. The rate for African Americans is 4.5%, more than triple the rate for non-African Americans. In several states (Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee), more than 8% of the adult Black population is disenfranchised. Richardson is the doctrinal reason no federal court has dismantled any of it.
Primary sources & research
Related cases
Part of The Personhood Prism, the companion to The Execution Gap by Thomas William Hornig. See all personhood cases →