Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 

Supreme Court of the United States

1969

Chapter

6

Title

Implied Fundamental Rights

Page

767

Topic

Fundamental Interests and the Equal Protection Clause

Quick Notes

Virginia charged all voters over 21 years old a $1.50 poll tax as a condition to vote.  Harper sued alleging that the poll tax violated equal protection.

Rule

o         Voter wealth or the payment of any fee cannot be made a precondition for voting.

o         Poll taxes as a precondition for voting are unconstitutional.

Holding - Justice Douglas

o    It held that a state violated the Equal Protection Clause whenever it made the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard.

o    Voter qualifications had no relation to wealth or to paying or not paying this or any other tax.

o    The Equal Protection Clause prohibited the states from fixing voter qualifications that invidiously discriminated.

o    To introduce wealth or payment of a fee as a measure of a voter's qualifications was to introduce a capricious or irrelevant factor.

o    As a condition of obtaining a ballot, the requirement of fee paying caused an "invidious" discrimination that ran afoul of the Equal Protection Clause.

Book Name

Constitutional Law : Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet.  ISBN:  978-0-7355-7719-0

Issue

o    Whether a state may impose a poll tax as a condition to voting?  No.

Procedure

Trial

o         District court dismissed suit.

Supreme

o         Reversed.

Facts/Cases

Discussion

Key Phrases

Rules/Laws

Pl -   Harper

Df -   Virginia

Description

o         Virginia charged all voters over 21 years old a $1.50 poll tax as a condition to vote.

o         Harper sued alleging that the poll tax violated equal protection.

Justice Douglas

o    A State violates the Equal Protection Clause whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard.

State Arg - Can demand poll tax for voting

o    It is argued that a State may exact fees from citizens for many different kinds of licenses; that if it can demand from all an equal fee for a driver's license, it can demand from all an equal poll tax for voting.

Court - Power is limited to fix qualification.

o    But we must remember that the interest of the State, when it comes to voting, is limited to the power to fix qualifications.

Court - Wealth, like race, creed, or color, is not germane to voting

o    Wealth, like race, creed, or color, is not germane to one's ability to participate intelligently in the electoral process.

o    Lines drawn on the basis of wealth or property, like those of race ( Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 216), are traditionally disfavored.

Wealth or polltax is an irrelevant factor

o    To introduce wealth or payment of a fee as a measure of a voter's qualifications is to introduce a capricious or irrelevant factor.

Court - Equal Protection treatments change

o    Notions of what constitutes equal treatment for purposes of the Equal Protection Clause do change.

Court - Skinner - Classifications might invade or restrain

o    Where fundamental rights and liberties are asserted under the Equal Protection Clause, classifications which might invade or restrain them must be closely scrutinized and carefully confined.

Court - Holding

o    The right to vote is too precious, too fundamental to be so burdened or conditioned.

Dissent - Justice Black

Broadest kind of leeway

o    The Equal Protection Clause States are to have the broadest kind of leeway in areas where they have a general constitutional competence to act.

o    [State] poll tax legislation can "reasonably," "rationally" and without an "invidious" or evil purpose to injure anyone be found to rest on a number of state policies including

o    (1) the State's desire to collect its revenue, and

o    (2) its belief that voters who pay a poll tax will be interested in furthering the  State's welfare when they vote.

History is on the side of "rationality"

o    '[And] history is on the side of "rationality" of the State's poll tax policy.

o    Property qualifications existed in the Colonies and were continued by many States after the Constitution was adopted ....

o    Another reason for my dissent [is that the Court] seems to be using the old "natural-law-due-process formula" to justify striking down state laws as violations of the Equal Protection Clause ....

Dissent - Justice Harlan, Justice Stewart

Believes there is a rational basis for Virginias poll tax

o    [The Court uses] captivating phrases, but they are wholly inadequate to satisfy the standard governing adjudication of the equal protection issue: Is there a rational basis for Virginia's poll tax as a voting qualification? I think the answer to that question is undoubtedly "yes."

Colony Argument

o    Property qualifications and poll taxes have been a traditional part of our political structure.

o     In the Colonies the franchise was generally a restricted one.

Promotes Civic Responsibility

o    [It] is certainly a rational argument that payment of some minimal poll tax promotes civic responsibility, weeding out those who do not care enough about public affairs to pay $1.50 or thereabouts a year for the exercise of the franchise.

People with means are more responsible

o    It is also arguable, indeed it was probably accepted as sound political theory by a large percentage of Americans through most of our history, that people with some property have a deeper stake in community affairs, and are consequently more responsible, more educated, more knowledgeable, more worthy of confidence, than those without means, and that the community and Nation would be better managed if the franchise were restricted to such citizens.

Rules

Rule

o         Voter wealth or the payment of any fee cannot be made a precondition for voting.

o         Poll taxes as a precondition for voting are unconstitutional.

Fifteenth amendment

o   The right of any citizen to vote

o   Shall not be denied or abridged

o   On account of race, color or previous condition of servitude

Nineteenth amendment

o   The right of any citizen to vote

o   Shall not be denied or abridged

o   On account of sex

Twenty-fourth amendment

o   The right of any citizen to vote

o   Shall not be denied or abridged

o   On account of failure to pay any poll tax or other taxes.

Twenty-sixth amendment

o   The right of any citizen 18 years of age  or older to vote

o   shall not be denied or abridged

o    on account of age

Class Notes