The court then turned to the question of whether Section 1973 affected an alteration in the federal/state balance. The court determined that both punishment of felons and control of the franchise were matters of traditional state concern. The court then determined that, in the absence of findings that disenfranchisement laws were a tool of discrimination or that application of Section 1973 to disenfranchisement laws was a proportionate and congruent response to unconstitutional behavior that application of Section 1973 to felon disenfranchisement laws might well be unconstitutional and, at a minimum, altered the federal/state balance.
