LET’S GET RID OF EVERYTHING THAT DISADVANTAGES DEMOCRATS :  Now that we’ve decided to open up the prisons and jails, eliminate fines and fees, and send the police packing, the issue of the excessive number of  “collateral consequences” for felony convictions is becoming a popular topic again.

Last year, the Commission on Civil Rights released a report calling for fewer such consequences.  My Commission colleague Peter Kirsanow and I filed a Statement that was somewhat sympathetic toward that goal.  We did worry that our colleagues were getting a bit carried away.

The most troubling thing about the Commission’s report was its over-emphasis of voting rights.  The report lamented that collateral consequences (e.g. laws that exclude convicted felons from certain jobs or benefits) make it difficult for ex-convicts to re-integrate into the economy.  But the only collateral consequence that it treated at length and indeed waxed poetic on–the denial of the right to vote–is also one that has nothing to do with re-integrating into the economy.  Funny thing that.