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56 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/colhr56 and id is 1 raw text is: THE READMISSION ACTS: RECONSTRUCTION'S FORGOTTEN VOTING RIGHTS STATUTES Alon Goldfinger* ABSTRACT After the Supreme Court's decision in Richardson v. Ramirez, many believed federal protection against state felony disenfranchisement laws to be dead. However, recently, several litigators in Virginia have revived a set of old, Reconstruction-era statutes to argue that the federal judiciary not only can, but must, curb current felony disenfranchisement practices. Lost to history, this set of statutes, called the Readmission Acts, conditioned all but one of the former Confederate states' readmissions on the prospect that those states limit future disenfranchisement to now felonies at common law. This Note serves as a first-of-its-kind analysis of the Readmission Acts, sifting through 242 pages of legislative history to shine light on their meaning. First, it traces the history of felony disenfranchisement from Reconstruction until today. It then examines the Acts more specifically, pointing out the powers that Congress could have relied on to pass the Acts, conducting a statutory interpretation analysis to decipher their meaning, and outlining various remedies that courts can pursue for violations of the Acts. Finally, this Note will address some of the arguments against enforcing the Acts, responding to critiques related to the political questions doctrine, sovereign immunity, federalism more broadly, and the equal state sovereignty doctrine. When discussing the equal state sovereignty doctrine, this Note will uplift statements from the Reconstruction Congress that highlight the current Court's misalignment with the goals of Reconstruction. Reconstruction wholly changed the nature of the United States legal system. The Acts are a further reflection of that legacy. * J.D., Columbia Law School, 2025. Thank you to Professor Kellen R. Funk for his support supervising this project. I am also grateful to Professor Pippa Holloway and Professor Gabriel J. Chin for their helpful comments, and the editors of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review for their editorial assistance.