Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/384/641/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-08-20 05:28:43
Document Index: 69763294

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 14', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 2282', '§ 4', '§ 1252', '§ 4', '§ 5', '§ 2', '§ 5', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 8', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 3', '§ 8', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 8', '§ 1423', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 4']

These cases concern the constitutionality of § 4(e) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. [Footnote 1] That law, in the respects pertinent in these cases, provides that no person who has successfully completed the sixth primary grade in a public school in, or a private school accredited by, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in which the language of instruction was other than English shall be denied the right to vote in any election because of his inability to read or write English. Appellees, registered voters in New York City, brought this suit to challenge the constitutionality of § 4(e) insofar as it pro tanto prohibits chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
the enforcement of the election laws of New York [Footnote 2] requiring an ability to read and write English as a condition of voting. Under these laws, many of the several hundred thousand New York City residents who have migrated there from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico had previously been denied the right to vote, and appellees attack § 4(e) insofar as it would enable many of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
these citizens to vote. [Footnote 3] Pursuant to § 14(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, appellees commenced this proceeding in the District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a declaration that § 4(e) is invalid, and an injunction prohibiting appellants, the Attorney General of the United States and the New York City Board of Elections, from either enforcing or complying with chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
§ 4(e). [Footnote 4] A three-judge district court was designated. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2282, 2284 (1964 ed.). Upon cross-motions for summary judgment, that court, one judge dissenting, granted the declaratory and injunctive relief appellees sought. The court held that, in enacting § 4(e), Congress exceeded the powers granted to it by the Constitution, and therefore usurped powers reserved to the States by the Tenth Amendment. 247 F.Supp. 196. Appeals were taken directly to this Court, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1252, 1253 (1964 ed.), and we noted probable jurisdiction. 382 U.S. 1007. We reverse. We hold that, in the application challenged in these cases, § 4(e) is a proper exercise of the powers granted to Congress by § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, [Footnote 5] and that, by force of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Under the distribution of powers effected by the Constitution, the States establish qualifications for voting for state officers, and the qualifications established by the States for voting for members of the most numerous branch of the state legislature also determine who may vote for United States Representatives and Senators, Art. I, § 2; Seventeenth Amendment; Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 110 U. S. 663. But, of course, the States have no power to grant or withhold the franchise on conditions that are forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment, or any other provision of the Constitution. Such exercises of state power are no more immune to the limitations of the Fourteenth Amendment than any other state action. The Equal Protection Clause itself has been held to forbid some state laws that restrict the right to vote. [Footnote 6] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A construction of § 5 that would require a judicial determination that the enforcement of the state law precluded by Congress violated the Amendment, as a condition of sustaining the congressional enactment, would depreciate both congressional resourcefulness and congressional responsibility for implementing the Amendment. [Footnote 8] It would confine the legislative power chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
in this context to the insignificant role of abrogating only those state laws that the judicial branch was prepared to adjudge unconstitutional, or of merely informing the judgment of the judiciary by particularizing the "majestic generalities" of § 1 of the Amendment. See Fay v. New York, 332 U. S. 261, 332 U. S. 282-284.
Thus, our task in this case is not to determine whether the New York English literacy requirement, as applied to deny the right to vote to a person who successfully completed the sixth grade in a Puerto Rican school, violates the Equal Protection Clause. Accordingly, our decision in Lassiter v. Northampton Election Bd., 360 U. S. 45, sustaining the North Carolina English literacy requirement as not in all circumstances prohibited by the first sections of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, is inapposite. Compare also Guinn v. United States, 238 U. S. 347, 238 U. S. 366; Camacho v. Doe, 31 Misc.2d 692, 221 N.Y.S.2d 262 (1958), aff'd, 7 N.Y.2d 762, 163 N.E.2d 140 (1959); Camacho v. Rogers, 199 F.Supp. 155 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1961). Lassiter did not present the question before us here: without regard to whether the judiciary would find that the Equal Protection Clause itself nullifies New York's English literacy requirement as so applied, could Congress prohibit the enforcement of the state law by legislating under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment? In answering this question, our task is limited to determining whether such chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
By including § 5, the draftsmen sought to grant to Congress, by a specific provision applicable to the Fourteenth Amendment, the same broad powers expressed in the Necessary and Proper Clause, Art. I, § 8, cl. 18. [Footnote 9] The classic formulation of the reach of those powers was established by Chief Justice Marshall in @ 17 U. S. 421:
We therefore proceed to the consideration whether § 4(e) is "appropriate legislation" to enforce the Equal Protection Clause, that is, under the McCulloch v. Maryland standard, whether § 4(e) may be regarded as an enactment to enforce the Equal Protection Clause, whether it is "plainly adapted to that end," and whether it is not prohibited by, but is consistent with, "the letter and spirit of the constitution." [Footnote 10] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Section 4(e) may be readily seen as "plainly adapted" to furthering these aims of the Equal Protection Clause. The practical effect of § 4(e) is to prohibit New York from denying the right to vote to large segments of its Puerto Rican community. Congress has thus prohibited the State from denying to that community the right that is "preservative of all rights." Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 118 U. S. 370. This enhanced political power will be helpful in gaining nondiscriminatory treatment in public services for the entire Puerto Rican community. [Footnote 11] Section chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
4(e) thereby enables the Puerto Rican minority better to obtain "perfect equality of civil rights and the equal protection of the laws." It was well within congressional authority to say that this need of the Puerto Rican minority for the vote warranted federal intrusion upon any state interests served by the English literacy requirement. It was for Congress, as the branch that made this judgment, to assess and weigh the various conflicting considerations -- the risk or pervasiveness of the discrimination in governmental services, the effectiveness of eliminating the state restriction on the right to vote as a means of dealing with the evil, the adequacy or availability of alternative remedies, and the nature and significance of the state interests that would be affected by the nullification of the English literacy requirement as applied to residents who have successfully completed the sixth grade in a Puerto Rican school. It is not for us to review the congressional resolution of these factors. It is enough that we be able to perceive a basis upon which the Congress might resolve the conflict as it did. There plainly was such a basis to support § 4(e) in the application in question in this case. Any contrary conclusion would require us to be blind to the realities familiar to the legislators. [Footnote 12]
The result is no different if we confine our inquiry to the question whether § 4(e) was merely legislation aimed chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
at the elimination of an invidious discrimination in establishing voter qualifications. We are told that New York's English literacy requirement originated in the desire to provide an incentive for non-English speaking immigrants to learn the English language, and in order to assure the intelligent exercise of the franchise. Yet Congress might well have questioned, in light of the many exemptions provided, [Footnote 13] and some evidence suggesting that prejudice played a prominent role in the enactment of the requirement, [Footnote 14] whether these were actually the interests being served. Congress might have also questioned whether denial of a right deemed so precious and fundamental in our society was a necessary or appropriate means of encouraging persons to learn English, or of furthering the goal of an intelligent exercise of the franchise. [Footnote 15] Finally, Congress might well have concluded that, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
as a means of furthering the intelligent exercise of the franchise, an ability to read or understand Spanish is as effective as ability to read English for those to whom Spanish language newspapers and Spanish language radio and television programs are available to inform them of election issues and governmental affairs. [Footnote 16] Since Congress undertook to legislate so as to preclude the enforcement of the state law, and did so in the context of a general appraisal of literacy requirements for voting, see chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
South Carolina v. Katzenbach, supra, to which it brought a specially informed legislative competence, [Footnote 17] it was Congress' prerogative to weigh these competing considerations. Here again, it is enough that we perceive a basis upon which Congress might predicate a judgment that the application of New York's English literacy requirement to deny the right to vote to a person with a sixth grade education in Puerto Rican schools in which the language of instruction was other than English constituted an invidious discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
There remains the question whether the congressional remedies adopted in § 4(e) constitute means which are not prohibited by, but are consistent "with the letter and spirit of the constitution." The only respect in which appellees contend that § 4(e) fails in this regard is that the section itself works an invidious discrimination in violation of the Fifth Amendment by prohibiting the enforcement of the English literacy requirement only for those educated in American-flag schools (schools located within United States jurisdiction) in which the language of instruction was other than English, and not for those educated in schools beyond the territorial limits of the United States in which the language of instruction was also other than English. This is not a complaint that Congress, in enacting § 4(e), has unconstitutionally denied or diluted anyone's right to vote, but rather that Congress violated the Constitution by not extending the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
relief effected in § 4(e) to those educated in non-American-flag schools. We need not pause to determine whether appellees have a sufficient personal interest to have § 4(e) invalidated on this ground, see generally United States v. Raines, 362 U. S. 17, since the argument, in our view, falls on the merits.
Guided by these principles, we are satisfied that appellees' challenge to this limitation in § 4(e) is without merit. In the context of the case before us, the congressional choice to limit the relief effected in § 4(e) may, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
for example, reflect Congress' greater familiarity with the quality of instruction in American-flag schools, [Footnote 18] a recognition of the unique historic relationship between the Congress and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, [Footnote 19] an awareness of the Federal Government's acceptance of the desirability of the use of Spanish as the language of instruction in Commonwealth schools, [Footnote 20] and the fact that Congress has fostered policies encouraging migration from the Commonwealth to the States. [Footnote 21] We have no occasion to determine in this case whether such factors would justify a similar distinction embodied in a voting qualification law that denied the franchise to persons educated in non-American-flag schools. We hold only that the limitation on relief effected in § 4(e) does not constitute a forbidden discrimination, since these factors might well have been the basis for the decision of Congress to go "no farther than it did."
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS joins the Court's opinion except for the discussion, at pp. 384 U. S. 656-658, of the question whether the congressional remedies adopted in § 4(e) constitute means which are not prohibited by, but are consistent with, "the letter and spirit of the constitution." On that chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is therefore unnecessary for us to consider whether § 4(e) could be sustained as an exercise of power under the Territorial Clause, Art. IV, § 3; see dissenting opinion of Judge McGowan below, 247 F.Supp. at 204, or as a measure to discharge certain treaty obligations of the United States, see Treaty of Paris of 1898, 30 Stat. 1754, 1759; United Nations Charter, Articles 55 and 56; Art. I, § 8, cl. 18. Nor need we consider whether § 4(e) could be sustained insofar as it relates to the election of federal officers as an exercise of congressional power under Art. I, § 4, see 88 U. S. 171; United States v. Classic,@ 313 U. S. 299, 313 U. S. 315; Literacy Tests and Voter Requirements in Federal and State Elections, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on S. 480, S. 2750, and S. 2979, 87th Cong., 2d Sess., 302, 306-311 (1962) (brief of the Attorney General); nor whether § 4(e) could be sustained, insofar as it relates to the election of state officers, as an exercise of congressional power to enforce the clause guaranteeing to each State a republican form of government, Art. IV, § 4; Art. I, § 8, cl. 18.
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U. S. 663; Carrington v. Rash, 380 U. S. 89. See also United States v. Mississippi, 380 U. S. 128; Louisiana v. United States, 380 U. S. 145, 380 U. S. 151; Lassiter v. Northampton Election Bd., 360 U. S. 45; Pope v. Williams, 193 U. S. 621, 193 U. S. 632-634; 88 U. S. 73, at 384 U. S. 92; Reynolds v. Sims,@ 377 U. S. 533.
This case presents a straightforward Equal Protection problem. Appellant, a resident and citizen of New York, sought to register to vote, but was refused registration because she failed to meet the New York English literacy qualification respecting eligibility for the franchise. [Footnote 2/1] She maintained that, although she could not read or write English, she had been born and educated in Puerto Rico, and was literate in Spanish. She alleges that New York's statute requiring satisfaction of an English literacy test is an arbitrary and irrational classification that violates the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is suggested that a different and broader equal protection standard applies in cases where "fundamental liberties and rights are threatened," see ante, p. 384 U. S. 655, note 15; dissenting opinion of DOUGLAS, J., in Cardona, post, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
pp. 384 U. S. 676-677, which would require a State to show a need greater than mere rational policy to justify classifications in this area. No such dual-level test has ever been articulated by this Court, and I do not believe that any such approach is consistent with the purposes of the Equal Protection Clause, with the overwhelming weight of authority, or with well established principles of federalism which underlie the Equal Protection Clause.
Although to be sure there is a difference between a totally illiterate person and one who is literate in a foreign tongue, I do not believe that this added factor vitiates the constitutionality of the New York statute. Accepting appellant's allegations as true, it is nevertheless also true that the range of material available to a resident of New York literate only in Spanish is much more limited than what is available to an English-speaking resident, that the business of national, state, and local government is conducted in English, and that propositions, amendments, and offices for which candidates are running listed on the ballot are likewise in English. It chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
is also true that most candidates, certainly those campaigning on a national or statewide level, make their speeches in English. New York may justifiably want its voters to be able to understand candidates directly, rather than through possibly imprecise translations or summaries reported in a limited number of Spanish news media. It is noteworthy that the Federal Government requires literacy in English as a prerequisite to naturalization, 66 Stat. 239, 8 U.S.C. § 1423 (1964 ed.), attesting to the national view of its importance as a prerequisite to full integration into the American political community. Relevant too is the fact that the New York English test is not complex, [Footnote 2/3] that it is fairly administered, [Footnote 2/4] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and that New York maintains free adult education classes which appellant and members of her class are encouraged to attend. [Footnote 2/5] Given the State's legitimate concern with promoting and safeguarding the intelligent use of the ballot, and given also New York's long experience with the process of integrating non-English-speaking residents into the mainstream of American life, I do not see how it can be said that this qualification for suffrage is unconstitutional. I would uphold the validity of the New York statute, unless the federal statute prevents that result, the question to which I now turn. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The pivotal question in this instance is what effect the added factor of a congressional enactment has on the straight equal protection argument dealt with above. The Court declares that, since § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment [Footnote 2/7] gives to the Congress power to "enforce" chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
the prohibitions of the Amendment by "appropriate" legislation, the test for judicial review of any congressional determination in this area is simply one of rationality; that is, in effect, was Congress acting rationally in declaring that the New York statute is irrational? Although § 5 most certainly does give to the Congress wide powers in the field of devising remedial legislation to effectuate the Amendment's prohibition on arbitrary state action, Ex parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339, I believe the Court has confused the issue of how much enforcement power Congress possesses under § 5 with the distinct issue of what questions are appropriate for congressional determination and what questions are essentially judicial in nature.
100 U.S. at 100 U. S. 345. Only then did the Court hold that, to enforce this prohibition upon state discrimination, Congress could enact a criminal statute of the type under consideration. See also Clyatt v. United States, 197 U. S. 207 sustaining the constitutionality of the anti-peonage chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Section 4(e), however, presents a significantly different type of congressional enactment. The question here is not whether the statute is appropriate remedial legislation to cure an established violation of a constitutional command, but whether there has, in fact, been an infringement of that constitutional command, that is, whether a particular state practice, or, as here, a statute, is so arbitrary or irrational as to offend the command of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That question is one for the judicial branch ultimately to determine. Were the rule otherwise, Congress would be able to qualify this Court's constitutional decisions under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I do not mean to suggest in what has been said that a legislative judgment of the type incorporated in § 4(e) is without any force whatsoever. Decisions on questions of equal protection and due process are based not on abstract logic, but on empirical foundations. To the extent "legislative facts" are relevant to a judicial determination, Congress is well equipped to investigate them, and such determinations are, of course, entitled to due respect. [Footnote 2/8] In South Carolina v. Katzenbach, supra, such legislative findings were made to show that racial discrimination in voting was actually occurring. Similarly, in Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U. S. 241, and Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U. S. 294, this Court upheld chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under the Commerce Clause. There again, the congressional determination that racial discrimination in a clearly defined group of public accommodations did effectively impede interstate commerce was based on "voluminous testimony," 379 U.S. at 379 U. S. 253, which had been put before the Congress and in the context of which it passed remedial legislation.
Thus, we have here not a matter of giving deference to a congressional estimate, based on its determination of legislative facts, bearing upon the validity vel non of a statute, but rather what can, at most, be called a legislative announcement that Congress believes a state law to entail an unconstitutional deprivation of equal protection. Although this kind of declaration is, of course, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In assessing the deference we should give to this kind of congressional expression of policy, it is relevant that the judiciary has always given to congressional enactments a presumption of validity. 53 U. S. 457-458. However, it is also a canon of judicial review that state statutes are given a similar presumption, 51 U. S. 415. Whichever way this case is decided, one statute will be rendered inoperative in whole or in part, and, although it has been suggested that this Court should give somewhat more deference to Congress than to a state legislature, [Footnote 2/10] such a simple weighing of presumptions is hardly a satisfying way of resolving a matter that touches the distribution of state and federal power in an area so sensitive as that of the regulation of the franchise. Rather, it should be recognized that, while the Fourteenth Amendment is a "brooding omnipresence" over all state legislation, the substantive matters which it touches are all within the primary legislative competence of the States. Federal authority, legislative no less than judicial, does not intrude unless there has been a denial by state action of Fourteenth Amendment limitations, in this instance, a denial of equal protection. At least in the area of primary state concern, a state statute that passes constitutional muster under the judicial standard of rationality should not be permitted to be set at naught by a mere contrary congressional chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
There is no allegation of discriminatory enforcement, and the method of examination, see 384 U. S. 3, supra, makes unequal application virtually impossible. McGovney has noted, op. cit. supra at 62, that