But. as I have stated. we do nothing of the kind. because we believe that the Constitution of the United States means what it says when it leaves the matter of qualifications for voting to the States. On October 26. 1961. shortly after the above decision of the threejudge court was handed down. the New York Herald Tribune printed another editorial which has bearing on the subject under discussion. This editorial was titled "A Fair Requirement for Voters." It read as follows: In upholding New York States requirement that literacy tests for voting be taken in English. a threejudge Federal court showed good sense. Proof of literacy is certainly a fair requirement for voting. The electorate is illinformed enough as it is. without opening the polls indiscriminately to those who cant even read and write. And if the point of a literacy test is to establish some minimum standard of competence to pass on community affairs. there is nothing arbitrary or capricious in requiring literacy in the language of the community. The case before the court was brought by Jose Camacho. a Puerto Ricanborn Bronx grocer who argued that he should be allowed to take the test in Spanish. It had a good deal of potential significance for the Puerto Rican community here.
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literacy test literacy tests