Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-11-10
ELECTION CASES MAY
Be ARGUED TOMORROW
Grandfather Clause Up to the
Supreme Court.
ACT is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Local Registration Measure Was So
Held by Late U. 5. District
Judge Morris.


Maryland's grandfather clause
election law and the license ordinance
aimed at the express companies by
New York city will be up for ora
argument before the Supreme Court
curing the present we *. This is the
Annapolis law controversy.
The Federal Circuit Court in Mary.
land has held the State election act
Of 1908 unconstitutional and fined
election officials for excluding ne
groes from registering. The contest
ed law provides that only males
twenty-one years old, possessing $500
of property, who were entitled, OF
whose ancestors were entitled &c
vote on January /, 1868, shall be en-.
titled to register in Annapolis mu.
aicipal elections.
Attorneys for the election officials
claim that the amendments to the
Federal Constitution prohibiting
states from denying or abridging the
right of persons to vote on account
of race have no application to mu.
nieipsl-eleetiOns. In this particular,
the case is distinguished from the Ok.
lahoma election law, recently present-
ed TO the court for consideration, un-
DER which negroes were barred from
a Congressional election.
OF Importance not only 10 the City
Of Annapolis, but to the State OF
Maryland, and the whole South, a-e
the Annapolis election law cases,
which probably will be argued to.
morrow before the Supreme Court.
The principal question involved is
whether a State can enforce a lew
prescribing qualifications, including
the so-called" grandfather clause
for voting at municipal elections with
out conflicting with the Fifteenth
Amendment to the United States Con-
stitution.
This amendment provides that the
right of citizens of the United States
&c vote shall not be denied OF
abridged by the United States, or by
any State, on account of race, color
or previous condition of servitude
The Maryland statute in question,
which was passed in 1908, prescribes
certain qualifications for voting at
municipal elections in Annapolis, and
includes the grandfather clause.
This clause, in effect, gives every
man, otherwise qualified, the right
to vote il be or his ancestors were
entitled to voIe prior to the first day
of January, 1868. The practical effect
of this clause would be to qualify
white voters, AMI to exclude the great
majority of negro voters.
The plaintiffs in these cases are
three negroes, John B. Anderson,
William II. Howard and one Brown,
who sued Messrs. Charles <. Myers
and A. Claude Kalmey, who, as regis.
tratiou officers for the Third ward, re-
fused to allow them to re tgister for
the city election of 1909. In refus.
ing to allow these negroes to regis.
ter, the defendants were simply
carrying out the provisions of TIE
law under which they were appointed
The plaintiffs do not claim that they
we're qualified under this law to be
registered, but alIege that they were
refused registration solely on account
of their race and color. and that the
law is unconstitutional because il dis
criminated against them on that ac
count
The late Judge Morris, in the Dis
tIict Court of the United States al
Baltimore, before whom these case,
were first tried, upheld the plaintiffs
contention, and declared the law un
constitutional. From the judgments
the defendants have appealed, ant
the whole matter is now about to b,
threshed out before the Suprem,
Court at Washington. The de fen
dant's attorneys, who are Messrs
William L. Marbury and William
L. Rawl, of Baltimore, and Mr.
Ridgely P. Melvin, Of Annapolis
have prepared an elaborate brief
setting forth all of the PROPOSE
tions of law relied on by them
The oral argument before the gu
preme Court will be made BY Messrs
Marbury and Melvin, for the appel
lapts, and by Mr.. Edgar II. Cans, o
Baltimore, for the appellees.
One of the principal grounds r4lier
on by the appellants IL that the Fiji
teenth Amendment does not apply t
voting at municipal elections. bu
that, as Under the Constitution 0
Maryland, municipal corporations ar
left entirely to the regulation an
control Of the State Legislature, IN
right to vote at such elections is no
righs which citizens Of the Unite
States have as such, but is a privi
lege accorded and controlled by tn
State Legislature, free from consti
tutionaI limitations.