The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to sections of the Mississippi Constitution that permanently bar people convicted of certain felonies from voting and which a federal court of appeals had found violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibitions against "cruel and unusual punishment."

In declining to hear the case, Hopkins v. Watson, the high court signaled a lack of interest in potentially overturning lifetime voting bans under the auspices of the Eighth Amendment, which typically involves evaluating methods of punishment against society's current standards of decency. All Eighth Amendment challenges to voting bans attempted so far have failed, and the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue.

There were no published dissents on Monday.

The legal challenge in Hopkins v. Watson was brought by six Mississippians formerly convicted of felonies who sued the Mississippi secretary of state to get their voting rights restored, arguing the lifetime ban violated the U.S. Constitution.

The suit, which was filed in 2018 and certified as a class action, challenged Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, which permanently disqualifies from voting people convicted of 10 specific felonies — murder, rape, bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or bigamy — and Section 253, which provides a mechanism to restore the right to vote on an individualized basis by a two-thirds vote in each house of the state Legislature.

Tens of thousands of Mississippians who have served time in prison for such felonies are prohibited from voting under the state constitution.

Plaintiffs Dennis Hopkins, Herman Parker and Walter Wayne Kuhn Jr., all of whom have completed their felony sentences, asked a federal court to restore the voting rights they lost decades ago under the voting ban provisions. Their case was later consolidated with a similar suit filed by other Mississippi residents, including Roy Harness.

A breakthrough came in August 2023, when a panel of the Fifth Circuit struck down the voting ban, saying it serves "no protective function to society" and "is thus a cruel and unusual punishment." In reaching its conclusion, the panel noted that a majority of states have rejected permanent disenfranchisement as an excessive form of punishment and called Mississippi "an outlier."

But in July, after rehearing the case as a full court, the Fifth Circuit reversed the panel's decision, ruling that Section 241 did not violate the Eighth Amendment.

In its decision, which had six judges dissenting, the en banc court said that case law permitting felony disenfranchisement was settled, citing a 1974 Supreme Court ruling in the case Richardson v. Ramirez holding that states can strip those formerly convicted of felonies of their right to vote without violating the Constitution.

"The case law cannot be stretched to outlaw Section 241," the Fifth Circuit concluded.

Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and attorneys with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP working pro bono, Hopkins and his fellow class members turned to the Supreme Court.

In a certiorari petition filed on Nov. 15, the class members told the justices their case presented an opportunity for the Supreme Court to clarify whether lifetime felony disenfranchisement laws like Section 241 violate the Eighth Amendment.

"Given the far-reaching effects of Section 241 and the fundamental voting rights at stake, this court should grant this petition to resolve this important issue," the petition said.

Jonathan K. Youngwood, a Simpson Thacher partner who leads the firm's litigation department and who has argued on behalf of the class before the Fifth Circuit, told Law360 on Monday that he was disappointed by the high court's decision not to scrutinize the voting ban, given the large number of people it affects.

"Voting is the cornerstone of democracy," Youngwood said. "Our clients are individuals who have fully completed their sentences, many of which stemmed from minor transgressions that occurred long ago. They have paid their debt to society and should have their right to fully participate in the democratic process restored."

The class members are represented by Jonathan K. Youngwood, Janet A. Gochman, Nihara K. Choudhri, Charlotte A. McCary and Albert J. Tagliaferri of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Bradley E. Heard and Ahmed Soussi of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Mississippi secretary of state is represented by Scott G. Stewart of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office.

The case is Hopkins v. Watson, case number 24-560, in the Supreme Court of the United States.

--Editing by Daniel King.