Split Nebraska Supreme Court orders Secretary of State to implement new state law enfranchising persons with felony convictions

As report in this NBC News article, the “Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that convicted felons who served their sentences are allowed to vote, after the state’s top election official sought to keep them from casting ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 election.” Here is more about this ruling:

Nebraska has historically restored the voting rights of former felons two years after they completed the terms of their sentences. Earlier this year, state legislators voted on a bipartisan basis to eliminate the two-year waiting period. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers later argued that only the state’s board of pardons could restore voting rights, and Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen ordered local registrars to stop letting all people with previous felony convictions vote, arguing the laws enfranchising them were unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, Nebraska’s top court disagreed, writing that state officials had not convinced them the law, known as L.B. 20, was unconstitutional. “The Secretary is ordered to remove any disqualification on registration he has imposed that is not contained within L.B. 20 and to comply in all respects with the provisions of L.B. 20,” the state’s high court wrote in an order.

The full ruling in State ex Rel. Spung v. Evnen, 317 Neb. 800 (Neb. Oct. 16, 2024) (available here), is quite lengthy, in part due to many concurring and dissenting opinions. Here is how the per curiam majority opinion for the court gets started:

The Nebraska Secretary of State (Secretary) announced in the summer of 2024 that he would not implement recent statutory amendments providing that individuals who have been convicted of felonies are eligible to vote as soon as they complete their sentences.  The Secretary took the position that the statutory amendments were unconstitutional. Individuals who were convicted of felonies and who had completed their sentences responded by filing this action in which they seek a writ of mandamus directing the Secretary and two named county election commissioners to implement the 2024 amendments and allow them to register to vote.  Because the requisite number of judges have not found that the statutory amendments are unconstitutional, we issue a peremptory writ of mandamus directing the Secretary and the election commissioners to implement the statutory amendments immediately.