The Supreme Court has left in place Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era practice of removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes such as forgery and timber theft.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to Mississippi's lifetime ban on voting by people convicted of a wide range of felonies, a policy adopted in 1890 during the Jim Crow era that stands as one of the toughest such restrictions in the nation.

Voting rights experts say Mississippi’s restrictions are among the harshest because the state bans voting by first-time offenders who commit non-violent felonies.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not consider whether a Mississippi law banning people convicted of certain felonies from voting should be overturned. The Jim Crow-era practice extends to people convicted of nonviolent crimes,

MISSISSIPPI, (WCBI) – The U.S. Supreme Court is taking zero action on Mississippi’s voting laws. A group of people who completed their criminal sentences filed a lawsuit seeking the right to vote again. Mississippi law allows the removal of voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes.

The nation's highest court has declined to hear a case about Montana voting laws which would have disproportionately affected Native people. Last year, Montana's Supreme Court decided two laws passed in 2021 to ban same-day voter registration and paid absentee ballot collection were unconstitutional.