The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down the appeal of Massachusetts prison inmates who argued that the 1964 Voting Rights Act guaranteed them the right to vote.

Massachusetts and 47 other states generally prohibit incarcerated felons from voting. Maine and Vermont allow it. In 2001, several prisoners sued, arguing that not allowing them to vote violated the federal Voting Rights Act because the percentage of imprisoned felons who are black or Hispanic is higher than the percentage in the state as a whole.

The argument, of course, is hooey. This isn’t unjust discrimination against minorities, it is just discrimination against people who break the laws of society and thus may forfeit the privilege of having a say in how that society conducts itself. If you want to vote, stay out of prison. It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable burden to me.

These kinds of backwards racism arguments—a disproportionate number of African-Americans in prison is not proof of societal racism, but rather that a disproportionate proportion of African-Americans are committing crimes that put them there—are intellectually dishonest but disturbingly common. Undoubtedly, some will now argue that the Supreme Court’s rejection of it is merely further evidence that its members are ideologically to the right of Cotton Mather. It is not, however. There is nothing unfair, unreasonable or cruel about the government declaring that staying out of jail is a prerequisite for voting, no matter what race one may be.