Missing info. Those in the know realize that my post of yesterday on the Muntaqim case was incomplete. I was accurate as far as it went, but there was a companion case, Hayden v. Pataki that was arued together with Muntaqim was also decided. Unfortunately, the link on the Second Circuit website only gives me an error message. The link from Findlaw does the same thing, so I haven't read this decision. The New York Law Journal says that the en banc court decided 8-5 that Congress did not intend to allow challenges to the felon disenfranchisement law under the Voting Rights Act.

The ABA Law Students Divison just recently held a moot court competition on this very issue, and I, as a judge in the preliminary rounds, heard extremely good arguments on both sides of this issue. I would not be surprised if Hayden makes its way to the Supreme Court.

Once I do get a copy of the decision, I will post a more complete report.


EDIT: The decisions in Hayden v. Pataki can be found here. It's a lengthy document, but when I get to read it in its entirety, I expect to have some things to say (or maybe not).