NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge has ruled that four people can’t be denied their voting rights because their specific felony offenses bar them from having a gun, even under a state directive that added gun rights as a prerequisite to casting a ballot again.
But the four people requesting their voting rights back aren’t guaranteed to have them restored. Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton’s ruling last week grants the four petitions to get back full rights of citizenship, including voting, and the Nashville jurist excluded gun rights because their offenses spurred permanent gun bans.
However, if someone can’t get their gun rights back because an offense disqualifies it, there is state case law that says they can still get their voting rights and other citizenship rights back, she ruled.
Earlier this year, Tennessee began requiring people with a felony conviction to get their right to bear arms back if they want their voting rights restored. The decision further toughened a strict, complicated system of voting rights restoration that had already been the subject of a federal lawsuit for years, leaving some people concerned they would have no shot at voting again because their offenses strip away gun rights for good.