In Florida, I believe there’s a law that felons must pay outstanding fees before they can vote. I’m guessing that’s still in effect, unless I’m misremembering something.
Sounds like one of them pesky t’s that need to be dotted, but yes, I am sure that payment of all outstanding fees, fines and court ordered restitution is part of the process.
Okay, I’ll bite: I’ve never heard the term “dank” not used in the dictionary definition. What does it mean? PS: I’m pretty damn old, maybe it’s regional or something.
Dank is slang for particularly pungent weed.
Used in a sentence: “That shit is dank, yo!”
And for a subset of “humorous” jokes/memes floating around the internet, for which a large dose of “dank weed” would be required to render them anything close to funny.
Different states have different requirements. Florida is, to my knowledge, the only state that requires that. In Texas, OTOH, their vote is automatically restored.
Some states you don’t lose the right to vote at all.
You have to admit that this was at least a little funny.
Made me laugh when I saw it.
I’d say yes.
In the federal system, there are few trials and lots of plea bargains. And all the plea bargains are to plead guilty to less charges – there is no bargaining over the sentence length.
I do not think many of those pardoned were arrested for simple possession. If it had gone to trial, maybe they would have only been convicted of possession. Or maybe they would have been acquitted. Or maybe the prosecution would have won its case on all charges.
However, I am still in favor of Biden’s action because, with few exceptions, I think that after you serve your time, your misdeed should no longer be held against you.
How is it legal to require any process to restore voting rights to pardoned individuals? If they’re pardoned, then they don’t get punished. That’s what pardoning means. And removal of voting rights is only allowed as a punishment for crime.
Psst…“poll tax”.
Cool, man 
The 24th Amendment was specifically written to prevent what Florida’s law does. But, eh, whatever, right?
The point of the Florida law is to remove Black people from the voting rolls. Florida already voted to restore the right to vote to feelings who have served their time, and the legislature avoided implementing it. (Or something like that.)
I agree with most dopers and no doubt a majority of the voters of the United States that people should not be jailed for marijuana possession. No argument. But no one has even commented on the fact that it is indeed a valid law of the country, passed in accordance with our constitution. So if we no longer want such a law, then our legislature should repeal or modify it. It is not up to the President to decide.
But he does and everyone here cheers. Obama over and over again said that he did not have the authority to enact a Dreamer law, finally got tired of following the law so simply decided to write one himself and dared the country to sue him. They finally did and it has been a judicial issue ever since. Biden (and Pelosi and others) always said that the president did not have the power to forgive student loan debt. After months of thought (?) the president finally got tired of following the law so simply decided to write one himself and dared the country to sue him. And we are in that judicial mess right now.
Presidential pardons are a different beast, of course, but we still have a congress, still a constitution, so one would hope that a sitting congress would take care of writing laws. That’s their job and they still get paid.
Just because most agree with the aim of Biden’s pardon doesn’t make it right. Do we just want a dictatorship?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one! That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week.
I don’t think we have to worry about a Biden cult of personality anyway.
The U.S. constitution gives the president the unrestricted right to make federal pardons. If you don’t like it, then the solution is to either elect a different president, or change the constitution.
And he’s also said that he will ask Congress to change the law. Which is something he can do. Of course, any of us can ask Congress to do that, but they’re more likely to listen to Biden than us.
If we agree that people shouldn’t be in jail for simple possession, then we should agree with a legitimate, legal, Constitutional action that someone takes to get people out of jail who are in for that.
Yeah, the Florida thing was a case of the people vote to say “hey, restore the vote to felons who have completed their sentence and returned to society” but unknown to many of them, there was already a poison pill in the penal legislation – namely the imposition of costs, that was seldom or never enforced, thus making it so that every ex-con in Florida, on paper, still had not settled EVERY last part of their “debt to society”, and the Legislature grabbed on to that.
Exactly. The executive has quite a bit of discretion as to how to enforce the laws, and a whole damn lot of discretion on clemency. So this is a proper use of authority: seek a change in the law, and meanwhile apply clemency to the most unjustly condemned.