Oregon v. Mitchell; Texas v. Mitchell; United States v. Arizona

400 U.S. 112 (1970), argued 19 Oct. 1970, decided 21 Dec. 1970 by vote of 5 to 4; black for the Court, Douglas, Harlan, Stewart, Brennan, White, Marshall, Burger, and Blackmun concurring in part and dissenting in part. In 1970 Congress passed amendments to the 1965 Voting Rights Act that extended the provisions of the original act for another five years. The amendments also standardized residency requirements for participation in national elections and, dramatically, lowered the voting age to eighteen years for national, state, and local elections. Congress based its action on the enforcement language of the Fifteenth Amendment. The legislation raised the issue of federalism anew because national legislators were attempting to regulate the time and manner of conducting state and local elections, a traditional prerogative of the states. When the issue came to the Supreme Court, the major question was whether Congress had the constitutional authority to lower the national minimum voting age.

In a decision with five opinions and no clear‐cut majority, the Court ruled that Congress did not have the power to so act with respect to state elections but did have the authority to set the voting age at eighteen in federal elections for Congress and the presidency. Four of the justices believed that Congress had total power to regulate the voting age in any election, while four others believed that Congress had no such absolute power; Justice Hugo Black cast the deciding vote, concluding that Congress could regulate the voting age in national but not in state elections.

To bring the confusion that followed the Court's ruling to a quick end, Congress immediately adopted the Twenty‐Sixth Amendment, which was ratified in short order. Reversing the Court's holding regarding voting age in state elections, the amendment states that “the rights of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be abridged by the United States of any state on account of age.”

See also Federalism; Vote, Right to.

— Howard Ball

Oregon v. Mitchell
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 20, 1970 Decided December 21, 1970
Full case name: Oregon v. Mitchell, Attorney General Citations: 400 U.S. 112; 91 S. Ct. 260; 27 L. Ed. 2d 272; 1970 U.S. LEXIS 1
Holding
Congress may set requirements for voting in federal elections, but is prohibited from setting requirements in state and local elections.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun
Case opinions
Majority by: Black Concurrence/dissent by: Douglas Concurrence/dissent by: Harlan Concurrence/dissent by: Brennan, White, Marshall Concurrence/dissent by: Stewart Joined by: Burger, Blackmun
Laws applied
Necessary and Proper Clause, U.S. Const. art. I § 2 and 4, art. II § 1, Enforcement Clauses of the 14th and 15th Amendments, Voting Rights Act
Superseded by
U.S. Const. amend. XXVI

Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970),^[1] was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that states could set their own age limits for state elections.

Plaintiff "Oregon" was the U.S. state of that name. Defendant "Mitchell" was John Mitchell in his role as United States Attorney General. Congress had passed an act requiring all states to register citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 as voters. Oregon did not desire to lower its voting age to 18, and filed suit on the grounds that the act was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court found largely for Oregon, in that it found that while Congress could set requirements for voting in federal elections that it did not have the power to set the voting age for state elections.

Enforcement

Obviously, enforcement of this ruling would have proven to be problematic. States not lowering the voting age to 18 would have had to provide special federal-election only ballots to citizens between 18 and 21 voting in federal elections. States would have to maintain two sets of voting registries, one for those between 18 and 21 and another for those over 21.

This question became moot with the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment the next year, which empowered Congress to legislate the lowering of the voting age to 18 for all elections in all states.

References

• "Oregon v. Mitchell" on Wikisource.

1. ^ 400 U.S. 112 (Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com)

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