Supreme Court keeps in place Florida law requiring felons to pay fees before voting

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The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request to block a Florida law requiring those who have been convicted of felonies and served their sentences to pay outstanding fines and fees owed in connection with their cases before voting.

The court's order keeps the law in place heading into the state's primary election for non-presidential races, which is scheduled for Aug. 18 with a registration deadline of July 20. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan dissented with the majority's opinion.

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"This Court's order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida's primary election simply because they are poor," Sotomayor wrote, joined by the other two dissenting justices.

A District Court had blocked the law, but the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision by putting a stay on the lower court's ruling. The Supreme Court Thursday denied an appeal of the Eleventh Circuit's decision.

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The law prevents roughly 774,000 people in 67 counties across Florida from voting because they are unable to meet the financial requirements, according to a university study introduced as evidence during the trial in District Court. Sotomayor noted that impact in her dissent, which said the majority erred in not vacating a stay on the District Court's order.

"A case implicating the franchise of almost a million people is exceptionally important and likely to warrant review," she wrote, arguing that Florida would not have suffered the same degree of harm had the payment requirement been struck down.

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Until 2018, Florida did not allow convicted felons to vote at all. Then, citizens voted to pass an amendment that allowed them to vote if they completed "all terms of their sentence including parole or probation." Then Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill at the center of this case, which included a stipulation that prior to gaining the right to vote, all formerly incarcerated people must also pay their legal financial obligations (LFOs), which includes fines, court fees, and restitution to victims.

Fox News' Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.