Kudos to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for making a stand for accountability and personal responsibility. Effective immediately, ex-felons will now be required to wait a mandatory five year period after their jail sentence is served before they are allowed to make a formal request to have their voting rights restored. In addition, Bondi is also decoupling the right to vote with the right to apply for professional licenses so that ex-felons can facilitate their re-entry back into the workforce.
Predictably, mainstream media outlets are jumping the shark with absurd headlines such as “Welcome back, Jim Crow”, but such extremely misleading characterizations miss the point entirely about just how a felon’s rights should be restored. Bondi believes that a felon’s rights should be restored, but they should be done so in a manner that protects society as well requiring the individual to take the initiative and the responsibility to reclaim the rights he or she lost by virtue of their felony conviction.
“I believe that if you are convicted of a felony, there should be an appropriate waiting time before you have your rights restored- and I firmly believe that someone should have to ask to have their rights restored. ” – Attorney General Pam Bondi
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
We were all over former Governor Charlie Crist for summarily restoring the voting rights of all individuals who were convicted of felony offenses- regardless of whether they had formally made a request to have their rights restored or had been evaluated by a clemency board to assess their character and/or their intentions. Crist in effect wanted to play the role of a priest and issue a general absolution to all felons for their past sins regardless of whether they had expressed any intent to change their behavior and become law abiding citizens or not. Other states would do well to take Florida’s lead on this matter rather than go about issuing a “blanket amnesty” for felons that instantaneously restores their rights regardless of whether they have made any effort to reform themselves or not.
[vsw id=”3yDX919fy3E” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]Russel Seth Palmer, M.D., P.A.
Plastic Surgery-American Society of Plastic Surgery
2699 Stirling Rd. #B101 Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33312
954-989-5001
DrRusselPalmer@bellsouth.net
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