Before voters passed the 2018 initiative, Florida disenfranchised 1 in 10 adults, including a staggering 1 in 5 black adults, which was five times the rate of every other state. This racial discrimination was no accident, either, since Florida’s lifetime voting ban was a product of the Jim Crow era.

This ruling is limited to just the plaintiffs who were party to the lawsuit, but it paves the way for a future decision expanding the scope of the ruling to everyone who is affected. Still, the lower court's ruling only applied to those who couldn’t afford to pay off their court costs, and it's unclear how it will be determined who is genuinely unable to pay if this ruling is expanded to everyone affected by the poll tax. Nevertheless, it still strikes a major blow against one of the most sweeping voter-suppression laws in decades.

However, the 11th Circuit's ruling by these three Democratic appointees is far from guaranteed to survive and ensure hundreds of thousands regain their voting rights as intended. Republicans have announced they will request an "en banc" review by the entire 11th Circuit, which Trump's appointments recently flipped to majority Republican, and there’s also a strong risk that the conservatives on the Supreme Court will overturn the ruling in the likely event that it reaches the high court.

Furthermore, Florida's conservative-dominated state Supreme Court recently issued an advisory opinion holding that the constitutional amendment did require the payment of fines and fees, even though its text made no mention of them. While that ruling is not binding, it could be a signal that the state court could threaten to strike down the entire amendment if the federal courts strike down the poll tax.