Health reform has many popular parts—rules against insurance company abuses; subsidies and tax credits to make health coverage affordable for millions; improvements in Medicare. But controversy persists about the “individual mandate” rule—which says that everyone must either have health insurance coverage or pay a fine.

Attacks have intensified since the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, because the mandate fine was declared a valid exercise of the taxing power assigned by the Constitution to the federal government. Opponents of health reform denounce the mandate as “tyranny” and say that it amounts to a big “middle class tax increase.”

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The United States is one of the world’s strictest nations when it comes to denying the right to vote to citizens convicted of serious crimes. A remarkable 5.6 million Americans are forbidden to vote because of what scholars call “felon disenfranchisement,” referring to state laws that restrict voting rights for those convicted of serious crimes.

Most felon disenfranchisement laws were put on the books during and after the Civil War. Since the 1960s, some U.S. states have maintained old rules or tightened them, while others have granted more rights. Today, people actually sitting in prison lose the right to vote in 48 of the 50 states (all but Maine and Vermont). But current prisoners only represent about one-fourth of the 5.6 million disenfranchised. The rest are either probationers under supervision in their communities, or people on parole after fully serving their prison sentences.

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