Most of you were probably too busy with real work to have watched Roger Clegg and me on the web yesterday as we testified before the House Judiciary Committee. We spoke against a bill that would purport to force all states to restore the right of a felon to vote the moment he is released from prison. It was certainly an illuminating experience. There were five witnesses on the other side versus the two of us, so I guess it was a fair debate. The venom of the attacks on Roger, however, was quite stunning. Rep. Steve Cohen (D., Tenn.) even attacked Roger for the name of the organization he represents, the Center for Equal Opportunity, because he is apparently offended that CEO does not believe in quotas and outright racial discrimination that favors certain racial groups.

It was also a real lesson in how contemptuous liberals are of the Constitution. Roger and I both pointed out that Congress cannot override a constitutional provision through legislation. The Fourteenth Amendment specifically gives the states the power to abridge the right to vote “for participation in rebellion, or other crime.” Article I and the 17th Amendment provide that voters for members of Congress shall have the same qualifications as voters for members of state legislatures, which explicitly gives the states the power to determine the qualifications of voters in federal elections. Congress obviously does not have the authority to abrogate that power unless it passes a constitutional amendment.

However, our defense of the Constitution was equated by some with a single-minded desire to disenfranchise black citizens, even though such felon voting laws nationally affect more white citizens than black citizens. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas) asked me when slavery ended in Virginia. She was apparently unhappy with my answer when I said it ended in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. She claimed that, because Virginia requires felons to apply for restoration of their voting rights so there can be an individualized review of each of their records, black Virginians remain “enslaved.” The logic (or illogic) of this statement speaks for itself.

But the most revealing admission during the entire hearing was made by Representative Cohen. When confronted with our constitutional arguments, he said that if there is a constitutional problem, we just have to find a way to get around it. There seems to be a lot of that going on in the House of Representatives these days.