Speech #870187970

At the time of his appearance before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. the Attorney General admitted that Senate bill 2750 would be unconstitutional if it attempted to prescribe the qualifications for voting. He admitted that under the Constitution the power to prescribe the qualifications for voting resides in the States. not in the Congress. But if I correctly interpret the statement he made then. he undertook to justify Senate bill 2750 on the theory that it did not undertake to prescribe the qualifications for voting. but undertook to prescribe a Federal standard by which the validity of a State literacy test could be measured on the basis of reasonableness. I do not know whether the Senator from Georgia agrees with me. but. in my judgment. in taking that position the Attorney General manifested a legal astuteness which was not even possessed by such distinguished lawyers as Tweedledum and Tweedledee. because neither Tweedledum nor Tweedledee ever attempted to split legal hairs with such nicety and fineness as that. Of course. the Attorney General did not point out any part of the Constitution giving Congress the power to prescribe any Federal standard by which the reasonableness or unreasonableness of a State literacy test could be measured.