Federal Judge Rules Virginia’s Felony Voting Ban Violated Law

The ruling blocks Virginia from denying voting rights for most felony convictions and comes as lawmakers advance a separate amendment for automatic restoration.

A voter walks into the polling station at the Spanish Wells Golf Club to vote in the Republican primary in Hilton Head Island, S.C., on Feb. 20, 2016. Win McNamee/Getty Images

A federal judge ruled on Jan. 22 that Virginia’s lifetime voting ban for people convicted of felonies violates a federal law that governed the state’s return to the Union after the Civil War, a decision that could restore voting rights to hundreds of thousands of Virginians.

In a class-action case brought by Tati Abu King and Toni Heath Johnson, U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. granted class certification and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on summary judgment.