CSI V. Moore
In 2019 we filed a lawsuit seeking to reinstate voting rights for over 55,000 North Carolinians with past felony convictions who had not had their right to vote reinstated because of an unconstitutional felony disenfranchisement law. In 2022, a three judge panel ruled that the law violated two clauses of the state constitution, unlocking the votes of over 55,000 people, the largest expansion of voting rights since 1965. Defendants appealed this victory; and in 2023, our legal team argued in front of a newly elected, highly polarized, and partisan NC Supreme Court to defend it. The new court overturned our previous ruling, stripping voting rights away from thousands, but our community had won an unprecedented 276 days of equal access to the ballot. During that time, 33% of the community members we contacted about their new voting eligibility registered to vote- showing the strength and power of legal advocacy and community organizing and the desire that second-chance voters have to participate in their democracy.