1989

1 Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U.S. 528, 538–40, 543–44 (1965); United States v.

Texas, 252 F. Supp. 234, 238–45 (W.D. Tex.) (three-judge court), aff’d on other

grounds, 384 U.S. 155 (1966).

2 H.R. Rep. No. 1821, 87th Cong., 2d Sess. 3, 5 (1962).

3 Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937); Saunders v. Wilkins, 152 F. 2d 235

(4th Cir. 1945), cert. denied, 328 U.S. 870 (1946); Butler v. Thompson, 97 F. Supp.

17 (E.D. Va), aff’d, 341 U.S. 937 (1951).

ABOLITION OF THE POLL TAX QUALIFICATION IN

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

TWENTY-FOURTH AMENDMENT

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.

EXPANSION OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment marked the culmination of an endeavor begun in Congress in 1939 to effect elimination of the poll tax as a qualification for voting in federal elections. Property qualifications extend back to colonial days, but the

poll tax itself as a qualification was instituted in eleven States of

the South following the end of Reconstruction, although at the time

of the ratification of this Amendment only five States still retained

it. 1 Congress viewed the qualification as ‘‘an obstacle to the proper

exercise of a citizen’s franchise’’ and expected its removal to ‘‘provide a more direct approach to participation by more of the people

in their government.’’ Congress similarly thought a constitutional

amendment necessary, 2 inasmuch as the qualifications had previously escaped constitutional challenge on several grounds. 3 However, not long after ratification of the Amendment Congress by

statute had impuned the continuing validity of the poll tax as a
1990 AMENDMENT 24—ABOLITION OF THE POLL TAX

4 Voting Rights Act of 1965, 10, 79 Stat. 442, 42 U.S.C. § 1973h. For the results

of actions instituted by the Attorney General under direction of this section, see

United States v. Texas, 252 F. Supp. 234 (W.D. Tex.) (three-judge court). aff’d on

other grounds, 384 U.S. 155 (1966); United States v. Alabama, 252 F. Supp. 95

(M.D. Ala. 1966) (three-judge court).

5 Harper v. Virginia State Bd. of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966).

6 380 U.S. 528 (1965).

qualification in state elections 4 and the Supreme Court had voided

it as a violation of the equal protection clause. 5

In Harman v. Forssenius, 6 the Court struck down a Virginia

statute which eliminated the poll tax as an absolute qualification

for voting in federal elections and gave federal voters the choice either of paying the tax or of filing a certificate of residence six

months before the election. Viewing the latter requirement as imposing upon voters in federal elections an onerous procedural requirement which was not imposed on those who continued to pay

the tax, the Court unanimously held the law to conflict with the

new Amendment by penalizing those who chose to exercise a right

guaranteed them by the Amendment.