One of the many strange things in these bills is that the bills are presented to the Senate only 3 years after the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections. 360 U.S. 45. That case originated in my State. and it involved an attack upon the North Carolina literacy test. which appears in section 4 of article VI of the North Carolina constitution. and which is as follows: Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the constitution in the English language. It was asserted by the plaintiff Lassiter that the clause violated the 14th and 17th amendments. In rejecting the attack. and holding the North Carolina literacy test law valid. the Supreme Court of the United States spoke through Associate Justice Douglas. who wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court. Every member of the Court is still sitting on the Court. Why anyone should think that the present Court would repudiate a decision upholding the validity of a State literacy test within this period of time after its decision is something which I confess I am unable to comprehend. In the course of the opinion. Justice Douglas said: We come then to the question whether a State may consistently with the 14th and 17th amendments apply a literacy test to all voters irrespective of race or color. The Court in Guinn v. United States. supra. at 366. disposed of the question in a few words. "No time need be spent on the question of the validity of the literacy test considered alone since as we have seen its establishment was but the exercise by the State of a lawful power vested in it not subject to our supervision. and indeed. its validity is admitted." The States have long been held to have broad powers to determine the conditions under which the right of suffrage may be exercised. Pope v. Williams. 193 U.S. 621. 633.
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literacy test