TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A federal judge Wednesday ruled against Florida in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of state restrictions on third-party voter registration.
U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle said he will grant a request to remove the restrictions permanently, plaintiffs in the case said in a release issued by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
The plaintiffs -- including the League of Women Voters of Florida, Rock the Vote and the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund -- filed the suit in December. Hinkle ruled in May the restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law, and issued an order temporarily blocking its enforcement.
Lee Rowland, an attorney for the Brennan Center Democracy Program who argued the case in Florida, called Wednesday's ruling "a decisive victory for Florida voters."
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"The Florida Legislature has tried repeatedly to stifle access to voter registration opportunities, and once again a federal court has stopped them in their tracks," Rowland said.
Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said the organization was "grateful the court recognized that the Constitution does not tolerate these types of barriers to civic participation and voter registration."
The Brennan Center release called the Florida law "just one in a wave of restrictive voting measures that passed" throughout the country in 2011 that "could make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote this November."
The Florida law shortened the state's early-voting period and threatened third-party voter registration groups with stiff fines for not turning in registration cards with 48 hours after registrants filled them out.
