Freed Florida felons must pay all fines, restitution and legal fees before they can regain their right to vote, a divided federal appellate court ruled Friday.

Reversing a lower court decision that gave felons the right to vote regardless of outstanding financial obligations, the order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit was a disappointment to voting rights activists who depicted the challenged law as a modern-day Jim Crow law that amounts to mass disenfranchisement of Blacks.