Voting Rights: Racial Entitlement or Constitutional Right
Is the fifteenth amendment any less important than the second amendment? Should laws passed to reinforce it be any less robust than those passed to support any other amendment? If a law was passed 50 years ago and survived a Supreme Court challenge should it not be considered the law of the land? The fifteenth amendment, ratified on February 3, 1870, simply states: Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation Pretty straight forward coming after the end of the civil war, the right to vote would not be denied due to race, color, or whether you were a slave (sadly women would have to wait another 50 years for the nineteenth amendment) oh and the kicker: Congress shall have the power to enforce it. Of course where ...