Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Forbids states and the federal government to deny or abridge the right of a citizen of the United States to vote in a federal election because of failure to pay a poll tax or other assessment. Passed by Congress on 27 August 1962 and ratified on 23 January 1964, its target was the poll tax, a per capita levy long employed by southern states to prevent African‐Americans from voting.

By 1964 only five states still required would‐be voters to pay such an assessment, and even many Southerners favored its abolition. The principal sponsor of the Twenty‐fourth Amendment was Spessard Holland, a conservative Florida Democrat. Bills to abolish the poll tax were repeatedly introduced in Congress from 1939 onward; Holland himself took up the cause in 1949. By 1960 the idea was no longer particularly controversial. The only real disagreement was over whether the poll tax could be abolished by ordinary legislation or whether a constitutional amendment was required. Many liberals favored enactment of a statute, but Holland, who believed Congress lacked the authority to pass such a law, insisted on amending the Constitution (see Constitutional Amending Process).

The Twenty‐fourth Amendment encountered resistance from Virginia, which imposed a special federal registration requirement on voters who did not pay the poll tax in state elections. In Harman v. Forssenius (1965) the Supreme Court held this tactic unconstitutional. Although the new amendment did not prohibit requiring poll taxes in state elections, in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), the Court invalidated that practice too, holding it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

See also Vote, Right to.

— Michal R. Belknap

The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

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.

The Twenty-fourth Amendment was proposed on August 27, 1962, and ratified on January 23, 1964. It prohibits the federal government or the states from making voters pay a poll tax before they can vote in a national election. A poll tax, also called a head tax, is a tax collected equally from all voters. The amendment was proposed as a civil rights measure because southern states had used the poll tax to keep African Americans from voting.

Poll taxes were commonly imposed in the United States at the time the Constitution was adopted but had fallen into disuse by the mid-nineteenth century. After the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, the poll tax was revived in the South as a way to prevent African Americans, who were mostly poor, from voting. The poll tax also denied poor whites the right to vote. Typically, the unpaid fees would accumulate from election to election, making it more difficult for poor persons to find the economic resources to qualify for voting.

In Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277, 58 S. Ct. 205, 82 L. Ed. 252 (1937), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that poll taxes, by themselves, did not violate the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments. Breedlove led to the introduction of the first poll tax constitutional amendment in 1939 and to efforts to abolish the poll tax through state action. By 1960 only five southern states still had poll taxes.

The abolition of the poll tax was not a controversial issue, even at a time of fierce southern resistance to racial desegregation. The amendment was limited to federal elections, however, leaving state elections outside its scope. Following the ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court abandoned the Breedlove precedent. In Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 86 S. Ct. 1079, 16 L. Ed. 2d 169 (1966), the Court struck down poll taxes in state and local elections, ruling that such taxes violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

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 poll tax or other tax.

Section 2

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

 More:

The Constitution
Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)
The Other Amendments (11-27)

United States of America This article is part of the series: United States Constitution Original text of the Constitution Preamble Articles of the Constitution I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V ∙ VI ∙ VII Amendments to the Constitution Bill of Rights I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V VI ∙ VII ∙ VIII ∙ IX ∙ X Subsequent Amendments XI ∙ XII ∙ XIII ∙ XIV ∙ XV XVI ∙ XVII ∙ XVIII ∙ XIX ∙ XX XXI ∙ XXII ∙ XXIII ∙ XXIV ∙ XXV XXVI ∙ XXVII Other countries ·  Law Portal  view • talk • edit

Amendment XXIV in the National Archives

Amendment XXIV (the Twenty-fourth Amendment) 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 had been enacted in 11 Southern states after Reconstruction as a measure to prevent African Americans from voting, and had been held to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. At the time of this amendment's passage, only five states still retained a poll tax: Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. However, it wasn't until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) that all state poll taxes (for both state and federal elections) were officially declared unconstitutional, because they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Contents 1 Text 2 Proposal and ratification 3 References 4 External links

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.

Proposal and ratification

Congress proposed the Twenty-fourth Amendment on August 27, 1962.^[1] The following states ratified the amendment:

1. Illinois (November 14, 1962)
2. New Mexico (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 Jersey 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)

This 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. Oklahoma
6. South Carolina
7. Wyoming

References

1. ^ Mount, Steve (January 2007). "Ratification of Constitutional Amendments". http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am24. Retrieved on October 11 2008. 

External links

• National Archives: 24th Amendment
• CRS Annotated Constitution: 24th Amendment

v • d • e African-American Civil Rights Movement Topics and events (timeline) Albany Movement · Birmingham campaign · Black Power · Brown v. Board of Education · Civil Rights Act of 1964 · Civil Rights Act of 1968 · Emmett Till · Freedom Riders · Freedom Summer · Greensboro sit-ins · Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections · Little Rock Nine · March on Washington · Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party · Montgomery Bus Boycott · Poor People's Campaign · Selma to Montgomery marches · Twenty-fourth Amendment · Voting Rights Act of 1965 Activists Ralph Abernathy · Victoria Gray Adams · Ella Baker · Stokely Carmichael · Shirley Chisholm · Vernon Dahmer · Annie Devine · Medgar Evers · James Farmer · James Forman · Fannie Lou Hamer · Dorothy Height · T. R. M. Howard · Jesse Jackson · Clyde Kennard · Coretta Scott King · Martin Luther King, Jr. · John Lewis · Viola Liuzzo · Malcolm X · Thurgood Marshall · Bob Moses · Rosa Parks · A. Philip Randolph · Bayard Rustin · Modjeska Monteith Simkins · Fred Shuttlesworth · Roy Wilkins · Whitney Young Activist groups Congress of Racial Equality · Leadership Conference on Civil Rights · NAACP · Operation Breadbasket · Southern Christian Leadership Conference · Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee · National Council of Negro Women · National Urban League · Women's Political Council

v • d • e United States Constitution Text (at Wikisource): Preamble and Articles · Bill of Rights · Subsequent Amendments Articles Preamble · One · Two · Three · Four · Five · Six · Seven Amendments 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 Bill of Rights · Ratified · Proposed · Unsuccessful · Conventions to propose · State ratifying conventions Formation History · Articles of Confederation · Mount Vernon Conference · Annapolis Convention · Philadelphia Convention (Virginia Plan · New Jersey Plan · Connecticut Compromise · Three-Fifths Compromise · Signers) · Federalist Papers (list) · Massachusetts Compromise Clauses Appointments · Appropriations · Case or Controversy · Citizenship · Commerce · Compact · Confrontation · Contract · Copyright and Patent · Due Process · Emolument · Equal Protection · Establishment · Exceptions · Ex post facto · Extradition · Free Exercise · Fugitive Slave · Full Faith and Credit · General Welfare  · Guarantee · Impeachment · Ineligibility · Militia · Natural–born citizen · Necessary and Proper · No Religious Test · Origination · Postal · Presentment · Privileges and Immunities · Privileges or Immunities · Speech or Debate · Supremacy · Suspension · Takings · Taxing and Spending · Territorial · Title of Nobility · Treaty · Trial by Jury · Vesting · War Powers Interpretation Theory · Concurrent powers · Congressional enforcement · Double jeopardy · Dormant Commerce Clause · Enumerated powers · Executive privilege · Incorporation of the Bill of Rights · Nondelegation doctrine · Preamble · Preemption · Saxbe fix · Separation of church and state · Separation of powers · Unitary executive theory

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)