Oakland sunshine., 1915-07-24
'eRANDF FAlHER"
CLAUSE KILLED
Abolished by the United Sidtas
Supreme Court.
UPHOLDS WAR AMENDMENT.

State Laws Basing Right of Persons TO
Vote on Eight Of Their Ancestors to
Vote Before Enactment of Fifteenth
Amendment Are Illegal, Says Chief
Justice White.
Washington.-Chief Justice White In
handing down an opinion for the Unit
ed States supreme court on MondA.,
June 81, dealt deathblow to ae
"grandfath(- clause" which Is effec-
tive in number Of southern states In
DISTINGUISHING the colored citizens.
The court sustained In its opinion In
the Oklahoma and Maryland cases the
fifteenth amendment, prohibiting dis
elimination against colored people, and
the Oklahoma and Maryland laws boz
ring them from the polls because their
ancestors could not vote prior to Jan. /.
1866, were declared void by the -ca-
cision.
The Oklahoma law was modelled aft
er the North Carolina and Mississippi
laws which disfranchise maHT then
sands of colored men who are entitled
to the elective franchise.
The opinion of Chief Justice White
declares that state laws basing the
right Of persons to vote on the right of
their ancestors to vote before the If
teenth amendment was passed are ille-
gal, unconstitutional and imperative.
The court held that states may pre-
scribe literacy and property Qualifca
tion tests for voters, but they must not
be used as a subterfuge, as In Okla
homa and Maryland, to prevent the Nc
gro from voting.
Frank j. Quinn and j. ]. Bedl, Okh4-
homa election officers, were convicted
of preventing Negroes from voting in
the 1910 congressional election and
sentenced to Imprisonment for year
and to pay fine Of 500. They ap-
pealed to the appellate court at st.
Louis, which passed the case along to
the supreme court Of the United StaSes
without trying it. The constitution Of
Oklahoma, upon which that territory
was admitted to the Union as a state.
gave something very like manhood suf-
frage But prior to the elections of
1910 an amendment was adopted Sc
verely restricting the franchise
The amendment reads In part as fol-
lows:
mo person shall be registered as an
elector of this state Or be allowed to
vote In any election herein unless he
hn oh fo rrif 0nrffnr,
of the constitution Of the state OF
ok 1homa; but no person who was on
Jan. /, 1866, or at any time prior there
to, entitled to vote under any form OF
government, or who at that time resid-
ed in some foreign nation, and no lin
cal descendant Of such person, shall be
denied the right to register and vote
because of bis inability to so read and
write sections Of such constitution"
The government insisted that the
real question involved is the repug-
nancy of the standard which the
conditions existing on Jan. 1, 1866, be-
cause on its face and Inherently con-
sidering the substance of things that
standard Is a mere denial of the re-
strictions imposed by the prohibitions
Of the Fifteenth amendment and by
necessary result recreates and perpetu-
ates the very conditions which the
amendment was intended to destroy"
Chief Justice White says:
There seems no escape from the con-
clusion that to hold that there was
even possibility for dispute on the sub
Fifteenth amendment not only had not
the self executing power which it has
been recognized to have from the be-
ginning, but that its provisions were
wholly imperative because susceptible
of being rendered inapplicable by mere
forms of expression embodying no ex.
ercise Of Judgment and resting upon no
discernible reason other than the pur-
pose to disregard the prohibitions OF
the amendment by creating standard
Of voting which on its face was in sub
stance but revitaliZation Of the condi-
tions which, when they prevailed In the
past, had been destroyed by the self
operative force of the amendment.
1--WE are unable to discover how, un-
less the prohibition OF the Fifteenth
amendment were considered, the slight
est reason was afforded for basing the
classification upon period Of time
prior to the Fifteenth amendment. Ger
tainly it cannot be said that there was
any peculiar necromancy In the time
named which engendered attributes at
fecting the qualification to vote which
would not exist at another and dfffer
ent period unless the Fifteenth amend
ment were In view"
The court held that Oklahoma had
not meant to provide literacy test for
its voters If the restriction as to those
qualified to vote in 1865 was illegal.
and hence struck down that test. al
though stating that, landing alone,
such a test is constitutional. The read
ing test was stricken out along with
the grandfather clause. Chief Justice
White said the plain meaning of the
Oklahoma constitution was that the
reading test should not be used to dis
quality lineal descendants of voters
rrie-. to 1868. As this would be accom-
! plisJK-I n many cases - continuing
the reading vest >sithoI. the offensive
exemptions. ine whole Droe 1sion was
killed.
Mr.. and Mrs. Pitms of Spokane,
i Wa sh are the house quests of Mrs,