Hans von Spakovsky, a Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, points out that liberal groups that push for felon voting rights have a major failing in their advocacy that reveals their true motivations. In most states, felons lose many other rights in addition to voting when they are convicted of a felony. This includes the right to own a gun, sit on a jury, be a notary public, obtain certain types of professional licenses, or engage in some kinds of public employment (like being a police officer). Yet the Left never mentions any of these other losses of civil rights. If they really believe in restoration of such an important right as voting based on the argument that the felon has paid his debt and this will help reintegrate him into civil society, why don’t they push for automatic restoration of these other rights, too? If voting is a constitutional right that should be restored, why don’t they believe that the constitutional right to own a gun should be restored at the same time? Why do they trust that a felon will responsibly exercise his right to vote but not his Second Amendment right? If they believe that a felon will make the right choices of candidates in elections, don’t they think a felon will make the right choices sitting on a jury?

According to von Spakovsky, the fact that liberals have no apparent interest in restoring any of the civil rights that felons lose other than the right to vote shows that they are engaged in this purely for partisan political reasons, not because they have any true concern over the rights of felons or their reintegration into the civil society whose laws the felons knowingly and intentionally violated.

Hans von Spakovsky, a Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, points out that liberal groups that push for felon voting rights have a major failing in their advocacy that reveals their true motivations. In most states, felons lose many other rights in addition to voting when they are convicted of a felony. This includes the right to own a gun, sit on a jury, be a notary public, obtain certain types of professional licenses, or engage in some kinds of public employment (like being a police officer). Yet the Left never mentions any of these other losses of civil rights. If they really believe in restoration of such an important right as voting based on the argument that the felon has paid his debt and this will help reintegrate him into civil society, why don’t they push for automatic restoration of these other rights, too? If voting is a constitutional right that should be restored, why don’t they believe that the constitutional right to own a gun should be restored at the same time? Why do they trust that a felon will responsibly exercise his right to vote but not his Second Amendment right? If they believe that a felon will make the right choices of candidates in elections, don’t they think a felon will make the right choices sitting on a jury?

According to von Spakovsky, the fact that liberals have no apparent interest in restoring any of the civil rights that felons lose other than the right to vote shows that they are engaged in this purely for partisan political reasons, not because they have any true concern over the rights of felons or their reintegration into the civil society whose laws the felons knowingly and intentionally violated.