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When the Southern Poverty Law Center goes to trial next week over a law undercutting the biggest expansion of suffrage since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the judge will not be on the bench, but in a remote location, staring at his computer screen.

Lawyers on both sides of the case will be sitting at home, making their arguments, cross-examining witnesses, conferring with clients, making objections and presenting evidence — all without seeing each other in person.

With almost everyone encouraged or ordered to stay home or keep a safe distance of at least six feet from other people to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the trial is not allowed to take place in a physical courtroom of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. So the “courtroom” will be online.

The SPLC Voting Rights Practice Group and a coalition of partners will go to trial on Monday to support Amendment 4, a measure that Florida voters overwhelmingly approved to restore the right to vote to 1.4 million Florida residents with previous felony convictions. Soon after it was passed, Amendment 4 was undermined by a new law, SB 7066, that created a modern-day poll tax.

The SPLC will argue that the law — which requires people who have completed their sentences for felony offenses to pay their fines, fees and restitution in full before they can vote — is unconstitutional.

“Floridians like our clients, Rosemary McCoy and Sheila Singleton, are unable to overcome the financial barrier to voting that SB 7066 presents — potentially for the remainder of their lives,” said Nancy Abudu, director of the SPLC’s Voting Rights Practice Group. “A person’s lifetime participation in our democratic process cannot and should not be conditioned on their wealth. We will argue and emphasize to the court the very real and serious burden this law places on our clients and others in their situation.”

‘Courts are going digital’

The proceedings next week will take place primarily on a video conferencing application that allows multiple people to talk to each other on their computers.

“To our knowledge, this is the first voting rights case to go to trial virtually,” said Caren Short, senior staff attorney for the SPLC’s Voting Rights Practice Group. “This is all because of COVID-19. All the courts are going digital.”

The people participating in the online trial will be spread along most of the East Coast and even as far away as the Midwest. Those who are directly involved in the trial will be allowed into the virtual courtroom by way of  a closely guarded link that is password-protected to prevent what’s known as “Zoombombing,” when uninvited attendees break into and disrupt a video meeting.

But anyone from the public can listen in on the trial by phone via a special number that will be posted on the court’s website. The phone conference will be like a gallery — where members of the general public are allowed to sit behind the lawyers in a traditional courtroom — except that there will be a lot more “room” for people to participate.

Some normal court activities will be different in the virtual world.

Everyone except the person presenting their case or presenting evidence at the time will have their video turned off. If a lawyer wants to object to something, they have to turn on their video and hope that the judge notices so they can make their case. Evidence will be presented via screen sharing.

Over the last few weeks, the SPLC’s voting rights legal team has been practicing on the video system with each other and their clients to troubleshoot any issues before trial.

Read more here.

The Editors