Farrakhan

dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc:

This is a dark day for the Voting Rights Act. In adopting a constitutionally ques *1117 tionable interpretation of the Act, the panel lays the groundwork for the dismantling of the most important piece of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The panel also misinterprets the evidence, flouts our voting rights precedent and tramples settled circuit law pertaining to summary judgment, all in an effort to give felons the right to vote. The court should have taken this case en banc and brought order back into our caselaw. I dissent from the court’s failure to do so.

1. Plaintiffs’ case is based entirely on statistical disparities: They claim that disparities in the felony conviction rates of certain minority groups in relation to their presence in the general population lead to a disparity in the rate of disenfranchisement under Washington’s felon disenfranchisement law. They argue that these disparities alone prove that under the “totality of the circumstances” they have less of an opportunity to participate in the electoral process, because these disparities interact with the felon disenfranchisement provision and result in…

Order: Dissent by

ORDER

The panel has voted to deny the petition for panel rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc.

The full court was advised of the petition for rehearing en banc. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. The matter failed to receive a majority of the votes of the nonrecused active judges in favor of en banc reconsideration. Fed. R. App. P. 35.

The petition for rehearing en banc is denied.