RT Article T1 Lifetime Felony Disenfranchisement in Florida, Texas, and Iowa: Symbolic and Instrumental Law JF Social justice VO 33 IS 1 SP 79 OP 94 A1 Sennott, Christie A1 Galliher, John F. 1937- LA English YR 2006 UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/174715766X AB Part of a special issue on immigration rights and national insecurity. The writers discuss lifetime felony disenfranchisement (LFD) laws, which are well known to have much of their origins in American racism and the Civil War. They demonstrate how the instrumental use of LFD law has continued unabated in Florida and how the distinction between instrumental law and symbolic law—the former intended to control behavior and the latter more concerned with using law to make a public statement—can be used to explain the repeal of LFD legislation in Texas and its retention in Iowa. They show how state institutions organize and enforce racial politics through policies that were once explicitly and are now implicitly racial. K1 Prison reform K1 Parole K1 Human Behavior K1 Race discrimination K1 African American suffrage K1 Federal laws K1 American law K1 Political Science K1 History K1 African Americans -- Southern States K1 History of criminals K1 History of crime K1 History of race relations in the United States K1 Prisoners -- Suffrage