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{{US Constitution article series}}
{{US Constitution article series}}


The '''Twenty-fourth Amendment''' ('''Amendment XXIV''') prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] elections on payment of a [[poll tax]] or other types of [[tax]]. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was [[ratified]] by the states on January 23, 1964.
The '''Twenty-fourth Amendment''' ('''Amendment XXIV''') prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] elections on payment of a [[poll tax]] or other types of [[tax]]. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was [[ratified]] by the states on January 23, 1964.


Poll taxes appeared in [[Southern United States|southern states]] after [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] as a measure to prevent African Americans from voting, and had been held to be constitutional by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in the 1937 decision ''[[Breedlove v. Suttles]]''. At the time of this amendment's passage, five states still retained a poll tax: [[Virginia]], [[Alabama]], [[Texas]], [[Arkansas]], and [[Mississippi]]. The amendment made the poll tax clearly unconstitutional at the federal level. However, it wasn't until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in ''[[Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections]]'' (1966) that all poll taxes (for both state and federal elections) were officially declared unconstitutional because they violated the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]].
Poll taxes appeared in [[Southern United States|southern states]] after [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] as a measure to prevent African Americans from voting, and had been held to be constitutional by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in the 1937 decision ''[[Breedlove v. Suttles]]''. At the time of this amendment's passage, five states still retained a poll tax: [[Virginia]], [[Alabama]], [[Texas]], [[Arkansas]], and [[Mississippi]]. The amendment made the poll tax clearly unconstitutional at the federal level. However, it wasn't until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in ''[[Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections]]'' (1966) that all poll taxes (for both state and federal elections) were officially declared unconstitutional because they violated the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]].


==Text==
==Text==
{{quote|'''Section 1. '''The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
{{quote|'''Section 1. '''The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.


''
''
Line 17: Line 17:
{{legend|#ff0000|Cumulative poll tax (missed poll taxes from prior years must also be paid to vote)}}
{{legend|#ff0000|Cumulative poll tax (missed poll taxes from prior years must also be paid to vote)}}
{{legend|#7d7d7d|No poll tax}}
{{legend|#7d7d7d|No poll tax}}
History of the poll tax by state from 1868–1966.]]
History of the poll tax by state from 1868–1966.]]
The poll tax was part of a series of laws intended to marginalize black Americans from politics so far as practicable without violating the [[Fifteenth Amendment]], which required that voting not be limited by "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The poll tax had the additional impact of weakening poor white voters who might sympathize with the [[Populist Party]], though this was downplayed by proponents of the poll tax for fear of an electoral backlash against them. Passage of poll taxes began in earnest in the 1890s, as with the end of Reconstruction in 1877, no federal troops remained to enforce black voting rights. By 1902, all eleven states of the former [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] had enacted a poll tax. The poll tax worked in conjunction with a variety of disenfranchising measures, such as [[literacy test]]s, the "[[white primary]]", and threats of violence. For example, potential voters had to be "assessed" in Arkansas, and blacks were ignored in the assessment.<ref>Ogden, p. 4&ndash;13, 170&ndash;231.</ref>
The poll tax was part of a series of laws intended to marginalize black Americans from politics so far as practicable without violating the [[Fifteenth Amendment]], which required that voting not be limited by "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The poll tax had the additional impact of weakening poor white voters who might sympathize with the [[Populist Party]], though this was downplayed by proponents of the poll tax for fear of an electoral backlash against them. Passage of poll taxes began in earnest in the 1890s, as with the end of Reconstruction in 1877, no federal troops remained to enforce black voting rights. By 1902, all eleven states of the former [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] had enacted a poll tax. The poll tax worked in conjunction with a variety of disenfranchising measures, such as [[literacy test]]s, the "[[white primary]]", and threats of violence. For example, potential voters had to be "assessed" in Arkansas, and blacks were ignored in the assessment.<ref>Ogden, p. 4–13, 170–231.</ref>


The poll tax was largely ignored at the federal level from 1900&ndash;1937, though some state-level initiatives repealed it. The poll tax survived a legal challenge in the 1937 Supreme Court case ''[[Breedlove v. Suttles]]'', which ruled that "[The] privilege of voting is not derived from the United States, but is conferred by the state and, save as restrained by the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments and other provisions of the Federal Constitution, the state may condition suffrage as it deems appropriate."<ref>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=302&invol=277 ''Breedlove v. Suttles''], majority opinion.</ref> The issue remained prominent, as President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] spoke out against the tax. He publicly called it "a remnant of the Revolutionary period" that the country had moved past. However, Roosevelt's favored liberal Democrats lost in the 1938 primaries to the reigning conservative Southern Democrats, and he backed off, as he felt he needed Southern Democratic votes to pass [[New Deal]] programs and did not want to further antagonize them.<ref>Lawson, p. 57.</ref> Still, efforts at the Congressional level to abolish the poll tax continued. A 1939 bill to abolish the poll tax in federal elections was tied up by lawmakers from the South, whose long tenure in office gave them seniority and a large proportion of committee chairmanships. A [[discharge petition]] was able to force the bill to be considered, and the House passed the bill 254&ndash;84.<ref>Lawson, p. 68.</ref> However, the bill was unable to defeat a [[filibuster]] in the Senate by Southern senators and a few Northern allies who valued the support of the powerful and senior Southern seats. This bill would be re-proposed in the next several Congresses, coming closest to passage thanks to World War II and the ability to frame abolition of the poll tax as a way to help overseas soldiers vote. However, senators from the South dug in their heels upon news of the Supreme Court decision ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'', which banned the "[[white primary]]."<ref>Lawson, p. 74.</ref> The poll tax remained one of the few "legitimate" methods of restricting the franchise. The bill came closest to passing in 1946. 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans approved an end to debate, while 7 non-southern Democrats and 7 Republicans joined with the 19 Southern Democrats in opposition. The result was a 39-33 vote in favor of the bill, but the filibuster required a 75% supermajority to break at the time; a 48-24 vote was required to pass the bill. Those in favor of abolition of the poll tax considered a constitutional amendment after the 1946 defeat, but that idea did not advance either.<ref>Lawson, p. 80.</ref>
The poll tax was largely ignored at the federal level from 1900–1937, though some state-level initiatives repealed it. The poll tax survived a legal challenge in the 1937 Supreme Court case ''[[Breedlove v. Suttles]]'', which ruled that "[The] privilege of voting is not derived from the United States, but is conferred by the state and, save as restrained by the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments and other provisions of the Federal Constitution, the state may condition suffrage as it deems appropriate."<ref>[http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=302&invol=277 ''Breedlove v. Suttles''], majority opinion.</ref> The issue remained prominent, as President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] spoke out against the tax. He publicly called it "a remnant of the Revolutionary period" that the country had moved past. However, Roosevelt's favored liberal Democrats lost in the 1938 primaries to the reigning conservative Southern Democrats, and he backed off, as he felt he needed Southern Democratic votes to pass [[New Deal]] programs and did not want to further antagonize them.<ref>Lawson, p. 57.</ref> Still, efforts at the Congressional level to abolish the poll tax continued. A 1939 bill to abolish the poll tax in federal elections was tied up by lawmakers from the South, whose long tenure in office gave them seniority and a large proportion of committee chairmanships. A [[discharge petition]] was able to force the bill to be considered, and the House passed the bill 254–84.<ref>Lawson, p. 68.</ref> However, the bill was unable to defeat a [[filibuster]] in the Senate by Southern senators and a few Northern allies who valued the support of the powerful and senior Southern seats. This bill would be re-proposed in the next several Congresses, coming closest to passage thanks to World War II and the ability to frame abolition of the poll tax as a way to help overseas soldiers vote. However, senators from the South dug in their heels upon news of the Supreme Court decision ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'', which banned the "[[white primary]]."<ref>Lawson, p. 74.</ref> The poll tax remained one of the few "legitimate" methods of restricting the franchise. The bill came closest to passing in 1946. 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans approved an end to debate, while 7 non-southern Democrats and 7 Republicans joined with the 19 Southern Democrats in opposition. The result was a 39-33 vote in favor of the bill, but the filibuster required a 75% supermajority to break at the time; a 48-24 vote was required to pass the bill. Those in favor of abolition of the poll tax considered a constitutional amendment after the 1946 defeat, but that idea did not advance either.<ref>Lawson, p. 80.</ref>


The tenor of the debate changed in the 1940s. While in the 1890s and 1900s, politicians had been open about desiring to restrict the black vote, by the 1940s Southern politicians attempted to move the debate to Constitutional issues. Private correspondence indicates that black disenfranchisement was still the true concern, however, and indiscreet Mississippi Senator [[Theodore Bilbo]] even said "If the poll tax bill passes, the next step will be an effort to remove the registration qualification, the educational qualification of Negroes. If that is done we will have no way of preventing the Negroes from voting."<ref>Lawson, p. 70.</ref> This fear explains why Southern Senators from states that had abolished the poll tax still opposed the bill; they did not want to set a precedent that the federal government could interfere in elections. President [[Harry S. Truman]] established the [[President's Committee on Civil Rights]], which among other issues investigated the poll tax. Considering that the opposition to federal poll tax regulation in 1948 was claimed to be a Constitutional one, it noted that a Constitutional Amendment may be the best way to proceed. Still, little occurred during the 1950s, as the anti-poll tax movement laid low during the anti-Communist mood of the time; some of the main proponents of poll tax abolition, such as [[Joseph Gelders]] and [[Vito Marcantonio]], had been committed [[Marxist]]s.<ref>Lawson, p. 82.</ref>
The tenor of the debate changed in the 1940s. While in the 1890s and 1900s, politicians had been open about desiring to restrict the black vote, by the 1940s Southern politicians attempted to move the debate to Constitutional issues. Private correspondence indicates that black disenfranchisement was still the true concern, however, and indiscreet Mississippi Senator [[Theodore Bilbo]] even said "If the poll tax bill passes, the next step will be an effort to remove the registration qualification, the educational qualification of Negroes. If that is done we will have no way of preventing the Negroes from voting."<ref>Lawson, p. 70.</ref> This fear explains why Southern Senators from states that had abolished the poll tax still opposed the bill; they did not want to set a precedent that the federal government could interfere in elections. President [[Harry S. Truman]] established the [[President's Committee on Civil Rights]], which among other issues investigated the poll tax. Considering that the opposition to federal poll tax regulation in 1948 was claimed to be a Constitutional one, it noted that a Constitutional Amendment may be the best way to proceed. Still, little occurred during the 1950s, as the anti-poll tax movement laid low during the anti-Communist mood of the time; some of the main proponents of poll tax abolition, such as [[Joseph Gelders]] and [[Vito Marcantonio]], had been committed [[Marxist]]s.<ref>Lawson, p. 82.</ref>
Line 27: Line 27:


==Proposal and ratification==
==Proposal and ratification==
[[Image:24th amendment ratification.svg|thumb|400px|right|{{legend|#2a26ce|Ratified amendment, 1962&ndash;64}}
[[Image:24th amendment ratification.svg|thumb|400px|right|{{legend|#2a26ce|Ratified amendment, 1962–64}}
{{legend|#7df4ff|Ratified amendment post-enactment, 1977, 1989, 2002, 2009}}
{{legend|#7df4ff|Ratified amendment post-enactment, 1977, 1989, 2002, 2009}}
{{legend|#ff5e00|Rejected amendment}}
{{legend|#ff5e00|Rejected amendment}}
Line 73: Line 73:
# Maine (January 16, 1964)
# Maine (January 16, 1964)
# South Dakota (January 23, 1964)
# South Dakota (January 23, 1964)
Ratification was completed on January 23, 1964.
Ratification was completed on January 23, 1964.


The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:
The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:

Revision as of 15:54, 28 February 2010

This article is part of a series on the
Constitution
of the United States
Preamble and Articles
Amendments to the Constitution
Unratified Amendments:
History
Full text

The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964.

Poll taxes appeared in southern states after Reconstruction as a measure to prevent African Americans from voting, and had been held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1937 decision Breedlove v. Suttles. At the time of this amendment's passage, five states still retained a poll tax: Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The amendment made the poll tax clearly unconstitutional at the federal level. However, it wasn't until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) that all poll taxes (for both state and federal elections) were officially declared unconstitutional because they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Text

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Background

Main articles: Poll tax in the United States and Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era
  Poll tax
  Cumulative poll tax (missed poll taxes from prior years must also be paid to vote)
  No poll tax
History of the poll tax by state from 1868–1966.

The poll tax was part of a series of laws intended to marginalize black Americans from politics so far as practicable without violating the Fifteenth Amendment, which required that voting not be limited by "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The poll tax had the additional impact of weakening poor white voters who might sympathize with the Populist Party, though this was downplayed by proponents of the poll tax for fear of an electoral backlash against them. Passage of poll taxes began in earnest in the 1890s, as with the end of Reconstruction in 1877, no federal troops remained to enforce black voting rights. By 1902, all eleven states of the former Confederacy had enacted a poll tax. The poll tax worked in conjunction with a variety of disenfranchising measures, such as literacy tests, the "white primary", and threats of violence. For example, potential voters had to be "assessed" in Arkansas, and blacks were ignored in the assessment.[1]

The poll tax was largely ignored at the federal level from 1900–1937, though some state-level initiatives repealed it. The poll tax survived a legal challenge in the 1937 Supreme Court case Breedlove v. Suttles, which ruled that "[The] privilege of voting is not derived from the United States, but is conferred by the state and, save as restrained by the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments and other provisions of the Federal Constitution, the state may condition suffrage as it deems appropriate."[2] The issue remained prominent, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke out against the tax. He publicly called it "a remnant of the Revolutionary period" that the country had moved past. However, Roosevelt's favored liberal Democrats lost in the 1938 primaries to the reigning conservative Southern Democrats, and he backed off, as he felt he needed Southern Democratic votes to pass New Deal programs and did not want to further antagonize them.[3] Still, efforts at the Congressional level to abolish the poll tax continued. A 1939 bill to abolish the poll tax in federal elections was tied up by lawmakers from the South, whose long tenure in office gave them seniority and a large proportion of committee chairmanships. A discharge petition was able to force the bill to be considered, and the House passed the bill 254–84.[4] However, the bill was unable to defeat a filibuster in the Senate by Southern senators and a few Northern allies who valued the support of the powerful and senior Southern seats. This bill would be re-proposed in the next several Congresses, coming closest to passage thanks to World War II and the ability to frame abolition of the poll tax as a way to help overseas soldiers vote. However, senators from the South dug in their heels upon news of the Supreme Court decision Smith v. Allwright, which banned the "white primary."[5] The poll tax remained one of the few "legitimate" methods of restricting the franchise. The bill came closest to passing in 1946. 24 Democrats and 15 Republicans approved an end to debate, while 7 non-southern Democrats and 7 Republicans joined with the 19 Southern Democrats in opposition. The result was a 39-33 vote in favor of the bill, but the filibuster required a 75% supermajority to break at the time; a 48-24 vote was required to pass the bill. Those in favor of abolition of the poll tax considered a constitutional amendment after the 1946 defeat, but that idea did not advance either.[6]

The tenor of the debate changed in the 1940s. While in the 1890s and 1900s, politicians had been open about desiring to restrict the black vote, by the 1940s Southern politicians attempted to move the debate to Constitutional issues. Private correspondence indicates that black disenfranchisement was still the true concern, however, and indiscreet Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo even said "If the poll tax bill passes, the next step will be an effort to remove the registration qualification, the educational qualification of Negroes. If that is done we will have no way of preventing the Negroes from voting."[7] This fear explains why Southern Senators from states that had abolished the poll tax still opposed the bill; they did not want to set a precedent that the federal government could interfere in elections. President Harry S. Truman established the President's Committee on Civil Rights, which among other issues investigated the poll tax. Considering that the opposition to federal poll tax regulation in 1948 was claimed to be a Constitutional one, it noted that a Constitutional Amendment may be the best way to proceed. Still, little occurred during the 1950s, as the anti-poll tax movement laid low during the anti-Communist mood of the time; some of the main proponents of poll tax abolition, such as Joseph Gelders and Vito Marcantonio, had been committed Marxists.[8]

The 24th Amendment, long proposed, was finally sent to the states for ratification at the behest of President John F. Kennedy, who brought the issue back into public consciousness. Kennedy considered the Constitutional Amendment the best way to avoid a filibuster, as the claim that federal abolition of the poll tax was unconstitutional would be moot. Still, some liberals opposed Kennedy's action, feeling that an amendment would be too slow compared to legislation.[9] Ratification of the amendment took only slightly more than a year, however, as it was rapidly ratified by state legislatures across the country from December 1962 to January 1964.

Proposal and ratification

  Ratified amendment, 1962–64
  Ratified amendment post-enactment, 1977, 1989, 2002, 2009
  Rejected amendment
  Didn't ratify amendment
1Years are 1977: Virginia; 1989: North Carolina; 2002: Alabama; and 2009: Texas.
The official 24th Amendment Document in the National Archives

Congress proposed the Twenty-fourth Amendment on August 27, 1962.[10] The following states ratified the amendment:

  1. Illinois (November 14, 1962)
  2. New Jersey (December 3, 1962)
  3. Oregon (January 25, 1963)
  4. Montana (January 28, 1963)
  5. West Virginia (February 1, 1963)
  6. New York (February 4, 1963)
  7. Maryland (February 6, 1963)
  8. California (February 7, 1963)
  9. Alaska (February 11, 1963)
  10. Rhode Island (February 14, 1963)
  11. Indiana (February 19, 1963)
  12. Utah (February 20, 1963)
  13. Michigan (February 20, 1963)
  14. Colorado (February 21, 1963)
  15. Ohio (February 27, 1963)
  16. Minnesota (February 27, 1963)
  17. New Mexico (March 5, 1963)
  18. Hawaii (March 6, 1963)
  19. North Dakota (March 7, 1963)
  20. Idaho (March 8, 1963)
  21. Washington (March 14, 1963)
  22. Vermont (March 15, 1963)
  23. Nevada (March 19, 1963)
  24. Connecticut (March 20, 1963)
  25. Tennessee (March 21, 1963)
  26. Pennsylvania (March 25, 1963)
  27. Wisconsin (March 26, 1963)
  28. Kansas (March 28, 1963)
  29. Massachusetts (March 28, 1963)
  30. Nebraska (April 4, 1963)
  31. Florida (April 18, 1963)
  32. Iowa (April 24, 1963)
  33. Delaware (May 1, 1963)
  34. Missouri (May 13, 1963)
  35. New Hampshire (June 12, 1963)
  36. Kentucky (June 27, 1963)
  37. Maine (January 16, 1964)
  38. South Dakota (January 23, 1964)

Ratification was completed on January 23, 1964.

The amendment was subsequently ratified by the following states:

  1. Virginia (February 25, 1977)
  2. North Carolina (May 3, 1989)
  3. Alabama (2002)
  4. Texas (May 22, 2009)

The amendment was specifically rejected by the following state:

  1. Mississippi (December 20, 1962)

The following states have not ratified the amendment:

  1. Arizona
  2. Arkansas
  3. Georgia
  4. Louisiana
  5. Mississippi
  6. Oklahoma
  7. South Carolina
  8. Wyoming

Post-ratification law

The state of Virginia reacted by allowing an "escape clause" to the poll tax. In lieu of paying the poll tax, a prospective voter could file paperwork to gain a certificate establishing a place of residence in Virginia. In the 1965 Supreme Court decision Harman v. Forssenius, the Court unanimously found such measures unconstitutional and declared that for federal elections, "the poll tax is abolished absolutely as a prerequisite to voting, and no equivalent or milder substitute may be imposed."[11]

While not directly related to the 24th Amendment, the 1966 Supreme Court case Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections ruled that the poll tax was unconstitutional at every level, not just for federal elections. The Harper decision relied upon the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, however.

As of 2009, there is a case pending in federal court in Indianapolis, Stewart v Marion County, about whether laws requiring voter ID violate the 24th Amendment.[12]

References

  1. ^ Ogden, p. 4–13, 170–231.
  2. ^ Breedlove v. Suttles, majority opinion.
  3. ^ Lawson, p. 57.
  4. ^ Lawson, p. 68.
  5. ^ Lawson, p. 74.
  6. ^ Lawson, p. 80.
  7. ^ Lawson, p. 70.
  8. ^ Lawson, p. 82.
  9. ^ Lawson, p. 290.
  10. ^ Mount, Steve (2007). "Ratification of Constitutional Amendments". Retrieved October 11, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Harman v. Forssenius, majority opinion.
  12. ^ http://joellpalmer.blogspot.com

Bibliography

  • Lawson, Steven F. (1976). Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944-1969. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Ogden, Frederic D. (1958). The Poll Tax in the South. University of Alabama Press.

External links

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