In discussing her dissent in an en banc case involving voting rights (Hayden v. Pataki), Judge Sotomayor referred obliquely to a state law “barring a group of people from voting” that allegedly discriminated on the basis of race. Would it have been too much for her to add the fact that the “group of people” in that case consisted of currently incarcerated felons, irrespective of race? I’m not suggesting that that fact is necessarily relevant to the legal question, but it would put in a different light her insinuation that the en banc majority opinion (written, incidentally, by Judge Cabranes) permitted discrimination on the basis of race in who may vote.