Speech #890054537

The court discussed the Guinn case. the Lassiter case and the Trudeau case. all of which held that under the Federal Constitution a State has the right to prescribe a literacy test as a qualification for voting. The court then proceeded further to consider the claim that the New York constitutional and statutory provisions requiring literacy in the English language violated the 14th amendment. The equal protection of the laws clause of the 14th amendment forbids the State to treat people in the same circumstances differently. It is obvious that a State law which provides that no one can vote unless he is literate in the English language does not make any differences between people similarly situated.