They will be back in the streets within the next year just as they have returned to the streets since the 1964 voting rights bill was enacted. H.R.6400 is a somewhat new approach to the problem of discrimination regarding the right to vote. but it is unconstitutional in many respects and therefore I have no intention of supporting it. This administration bill. drawn by the Attorney General. contains many provisions. but the heart of the bill rests on a formula which prohibits certain States from using literacy tests as a qualification for voting. The effect of this formula would be to suspend or abolish literacy tests in the affected States. And this is clearly in violation of the United States Constitution. There is absolutely no doubt about the States of this Union having the right to conduct elections and set up eligibility rules for people to register their voters. The only proviso being that these rules or literacy tests must be applied to all people without discrimination. The Supreme Court has passed on this question in several instances. In the Lassiter case in 1959 and the Gulnn case the Supreme Court said: We do not suggest that any standards which the State desires to adopt may be required of voters.
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literacy tests